Forward Momentum
by Falara Hughes
Summary: Part Five of my Thief series. The City and Garrett recover from the Pagan plot.
1. The Aftermath

**Part 1: The Aftermath**

The last time I couldn't remember where I had been, a whole year had passed by. This time it might not have been a day. I could only hear voices at first—it took me a moment to realize they were talking about other people around me. When the ceiling above me came into focus, I could only see it partway. Something covered the right side of my face and was squeezing my head so hard, the inside of my eye socket was aching.

A vague vision struck me when I thought about my eye. Or was a memory? Something about flames and people. A knife and... agony, from my right eye to my hands. There was a dull pain in both but when I tried to lift my hands, my wrists knocked against metal. My fingers wouldn't move—they felt as tightly wrapped as my head. What happened to me?

"The blackhand's awake."

"Black-and-Blue Hands' more like it."

A pair of guards pushed through a bland curtain and stood over me. I tried to sit up and one of them shoved me back down, but in that brief moment I could see doctors and nurses checking on people in cots. I couldn't have been in a hospital—they wouldn't have wasted a bed on a thief. I started to look around but one of the guards grabbed my chin and forced me to look up.

"Hey! Hey! Eyes up, lifter! Don't go getting ideas about leaving here."

His partner laughed so hard I felt his spittle in my face. "He's not goin' anywhere in that condition."

"Yeah, well he's faring better than the others behind the curtains, though he's a dead man all the same. You're lucky the Baron spared you this cot, taffer, or we'd be parading your head through what's left of the streets."

That explained it. The blacktops would have killed me by now if not for Baron Stonebridge's orders. It was the least he could do after I got rid of his Pagan problem.

The Pagans... My hands and head hurt even more when I remembered them. I tried to sit up again and that guard eagerly kicked me in the chest. My armor must have been taken because his boot hurt more than it should have.

"That's enough, Watchman. Nobody assigned you to carry out this man's punishment." Both guards snapped to attention fairly quickly and I was able to sit up and look at the man that made their boots shake. It wasn't the Baron but he wore the same armor as the rest of his hammer-wielding brigade with a few decorations to suggest a high rank. On face alone, I bet he could have stared a bull out of charging.

Now that I was free to sit up I could finally see the condition I was in. Most of my leather was stripped down to the cloth I wore underneath. My ankles and wrists were in irons that were shackled to the frame of the cot and my hands—

I remembered what happened to them. They were wrapped in gauze but the blood jogged my memory. _The Pagans crippled my hands_. They left me alive with broken hands because I got rid of the Trickster and Viktoria!

My hard look had to be faltering. The Baron's man pulled a stool close to the cot and waved off the guards. "Make the rounds, gentlemen; he's going nowhere." He sat and watched me while they wandered away. I stared right back and waited for him to talk.

"The Baron has heard a lot about your misdeeds, Master Thief, and he wishes he could set eyes on you himself." He paced his words so I knew what they really meant. "I'm here on his behalf to gather anything you wish to confess. Do you understand?"

I nodded a few times and kept quiet. He wasn't here to interrogate me but with only a thin curtain around us and several listening ears nearby, there was no better way to find out if the job was done.

"Was it you who disturbed our neighbor's garden?"

Another nod, though when I looked at my hands again I wondered why I was telling him anything. I put myself at risk for this damn city and now I was crippled for it. I was likely to be hanged as well.

"When you ruined what they worked so hard to build, did you take their most prized possession?"

I laid back down and stared up at the ceiling again. He wanted to know if I had The Eye but the right half of my face ached when I thought about it. The Eye got away from me. Someone took it before I could get to it, then the world went dark. That was all I remembered for now.

I groaned for lack of a better response. Pain blinked across my face and I couldn't reach up to touch it—not that it would have mattered with the way my hands were. I sighed away as much of the pain as I could.

The Baron's associate was quiet for a while. "It is unfortunate that a legend should be taken into custody in such condition." Meaning he felt sorry for me. I frowned at his pity. "In better circumstances, I'm sure these restraints would be nothing for you to undo and the belongings we confiscated would be easily found and retrieved from their locked cabinet."

His hand waved casually in a very specific direction. That might be where my gear was taken but he couldn't have expected me to break out and retrieve it.

"Baron Stonebridge is a very busy man, Master Thief, so you will be held here until he is available to witness your execution." He stood up to leave. "In the meantime, I will send a doctor to look you over. We wouldn't want you to die before the Baron has his chance to meet and speak with you to his satisfaction. Until then, thief."

I watched him leave but his words kept my mind occupied. Was the Baron giving me time and opportunity to escape? That would have explained why I was being left alone behind a curtain but after looking at me, his man had to know how impossible that was. I couldn't deal with any locks without my hands and even if they set me free, I couldn't climb or crawl my way around to avoid being seen. Whether they planned to hang me or help me, I was at their mercy.

* * *

Now that I was conscious I couldn't sleep in a place where I didn't feel secure. I kept my eyes closed and listened to what was going on beyond the curtains. People were shuffling, moaning and diagnosing. The guards were off harassing someone else who may have appeared on a few wanted posters. Then there was something beneath the noise that attracted my attention: Four light taps on stone accompanied by the muffled jingle of an overstuffed pocket. It paused for a few seconds in between but the sound was moving closer to my privacy curtain.

I may have had only one eye uncovered but it wasn't hard to recognize Six-Fingers when he pushed past the curtain. Even with the glasses and doctor's coat, he didn't look like he could have belonged to any credible physician's office. Of course, that didn't stop him from diagnosing me.

"Oi, mate, you look awful. Get caught up, did you?" He kept his voice low and I did the same when I answered him.

"Picking over the corpses before the carters haul them away?"

"You're fortunate that I am, eh? One of the Baron's hammerheads mistook me for a doctor and sent me over here to see about you."

The Baron's associate wasn't that stupid. He probably saw the leather boots and legs sticking out from the bottom of Six's coat and knew they weren't something a doctor would wear—at least not during his work hours. I guess he was trying to help me escape after all. Better not waste the opportunity.

I lifted my wrists as much as I could. "How are your lockpicking skills?"

Six shrugged and knelt down near the cot. "Not as good as yours—though maybe better now if those bloodied rags mean anything." He almost laughed but the look on my face helped him swallow it and focus on the task at hand.

Six-Fingers was nowhere near as skilled at locks as me. He spent too much time studying what the keyhole looked like on the outside and had too many lockpicks on his vest to choose from. I kept all that to myself since he was helping me escape but it was still a special brand of torture watching him try.

I swung my feet to the floor as soon as my ankles were free, then tried to rub my wrists out of habit. My fingers wouldn't even flex behind the bandages.

"We better get on if we're going to get you out of here." Six helped me to my feet and we slipped through a side curtain. The person laying in a cot on the other side was barely recognizable as a man. He must have been pulled from a pile of rubble and brought here to breathe his last breath.

"Poor bastard." Six shook his head in sympathy while he took the only valuable he could find on the dying man: A small, silver hammer on a string of wooden beads had been tucked under what was left of his hand. We passed through other privacy curtains with similar scenes and I realized I was put in this area on purpose. What better way to help a criminal escape from a hospital than to hide him where the patients were too far gone to be looked after.

* * *

The last thing I remembered was being in Auldale—Somehow I had ended up in South Quarter. The clinic we escaped was just a temporary setup in an old library. All of my gear was stored in the direction the Baron's associate covertly pointed out. It was painful to watch Six struggle with the locks but at least we made it out quickly after that. The huddled masses of injured and dying people were enough of a distraction for all the guards and medical staff that wandered in and around the building.

Six managed to stay quiet while we put distance between us and the commotion, but that wasn't going to last. "So the missus and I fled as soon as all the trouble began. She and Addi are holed up in a traveler's lodge waiting for word. You're lucky I came back to assess the damage instead of keeping on to Cyric. We can squat in the flat while things blow over."

I shook my head. "If I'm hiding anywhere, it's going to be the clock tower."

"We won't make it as you are." We stopped in an alley to avoid a group of guards. "The blacktops and hammerheads are everywhere, scrounging for marsh-dwellers and survivors."

"Then to Maurus." The pain in my head and hands was getting worse. "I need him to take a look at me."

"He's overworked like the other doctors. Went there for sundries and met with a line clear through Black Alley. Too many rogues didn't make it out in time." We moved deeper into the alley when a crowd wandered by with a horse-drawn cart. "Eel's End was barely scratched. You'll be safe there, and I'll have a look at you."

At this point I didn't have a choice in the matter. We stuck to the back alleys and made it to the abandoned bookstore below his hideout. Six used a hidden switch to activate a bookshelf on a track that hid the stairwell to their front door. It was the only way I could get in with my hands wrapped as they were. After I remembered what happened to them, I dreaded seeing how badly they were damaged. I still couldn't remember why my face ached so much but something told me I wasn't going to like what was hidden beneath those bandages.


	2. Grim Diagnosis

**Part 2: Grim Diagnosis**

Like any professional, Six had his own skills with minor injuries but the damage to my hands wasn't minor. Whoever wrapped them had reset the bones as best they could but my fingers were so bruised and swollen, I could barely move one.

"Those are well and truly fucked, mate." Six's sympathy wasn't making me feel any better. "Let's see what we have on the head."

He reached forward with a scalpel and I flinched back without thinking. For a split second I thought I saw someone else pushing a knife into my head.

Six pulled back his hand and showed me the scalpel again. "Easy. Just going to slit the wrap from the side and pull it off, yeah?"

"Yeah." I exhaled a fit of nerves that came out of nowhere. As light as his touch was on a man's pocket, I knew I didn't have anything to worry about. Where was this fear coming from?

He tried again and I forced myself to sit still, but when the blade left my limited field of vision my anxiety boiled to the surface again. I felt hands on me from behind forcing my head and neck straight. A woman with wild hair was in front of me—the knife she had was larger than Six's scalpel. I couldn't see her face but I could clearly make out the red ring on the hand that pushed the blade forward. _She was stabbing me in the eye!_ _They took my hands and were trying to blind me!_

"NO!" I pushed back and hit the wall of the washroom. The over-turned tub I was sitting on crashed into Six's shins and sent him sprawling into me, dumping us to the floor in an awkward heap. Fortunately for both of us, the scalpel stuck in the wall when it slipped from his hand.

"Dammit, bleater, you almost lost your scalp!" If he said anything more I didn't hear it. I hauled myself up with my elbows and the wall behind me then stood in front of the mirror. Six's cut was enough to send the headwrap spiraling away from my face, and what it hid was exactly what I was afraid to see.

 _My right eye was gone._

Now I remembered everything. That woman was a marsh-dweller priestess. She carved out my right eye to replace the one I destroyed on that pagan jewel.

"Shit, Garrett." Six was near my right shoulder but I could only see him in the mirror. He worked his way behind me and stepped outside the door. "I'll... get some clean dress." He waited for me to say something but I didn't have any words for him. As soon as he closed the door, I sank down to the tub and closed the one eye I had left.

* * *

I couldn't sleep—even after I let Six-Fingers ply me with alcohol so he could clean and re-dress my wounds. I sat on the bed in his spare room and wondered how far I would have to go to find a guard who would kill me on the spot. With only one eye and no working hands, my career as a thief was over. Being drunk also wasn't helping me feel less sorry for myself. I stared out the window at the rooftops and the smoke that screened the morning sky.

" _Here lies Garrett, the former Master Thief._ "

That cocky voice could only belong to one person. I looked across the room and saw Erin step out of the shadows: She looked just like she did the last time we had a job together. Whatever rotgut Six gave me must have been better than I thought if I was hallucinating like this.

" _Awww, poor thing._ " Erin stopped a few feet away and bent forward with her arms folded. " _You suffer for one night and you're ready to curl up and die. I was tortured for over a year and I still managed to pick myself up and move on. Does that mean I'm stronger than you, Garrett?_ "

"You always had the bigger mouth, that I remember." I barely noticed that the bed shook when she flopped onto it. When I felt her foot tapping my hip, I started to sober up and look at her. Was Erin really there, stretched out in the bed with her arms behind her head? I reached for the bridge of my nose but the bandages reminded me of why I was sulking in the first place.

Erin kept taunting me with her tapping foot. " _You know, I would have never let the Keepers use me like you did._ "

The real Erin wouldn't know anything about what I did with the Keepers. Still, she had a point. All of this happened to me because I let the Beggar Queen and her Keepers convince me that I was meant to watch over this rotten city.

" _They made you their dog, just like Orion._ " Her voice was right in my ear. " _But at least you can use what they forced on you to your advantage. Remember how they got you back on your feet so you could get into this mess?_ "

One of those glyphs was involved. It healed me faster than I should have been healed. I wasn't sober enough to remember it right away and the more I tried to think about it, the more I felt a dull ache in my eye socket.

" _I'm sure it'll come to you sooner or later._ " Erin was already back across the room. " _Don't take too long to remember. You don't want hands like that to heal on their own._ " She retreated through the shadow she came from.

All of this business with the primal got me in this mess but if it could keep me from being crippled for life it might almost make up for it. I looked at the wall above the bed and then at my hands again. The primal was glowing behind the bandages—if I could just remember what I needed to draw, I might have a chance after all.

* * *

I couldn't say how many times I tried to draw the healing symbol before I passed out. I had to have gotten it right at some point because it was the first thing I saw when I woke up: Strokes and arches that filled the room with a pale blue light. Despite drinking enough to dull the pain of broken bones, I also didn't seem to be hungover. I should have had the worst headache but instead, I felt like I had a good day's rest.

Without thinking, I planted my hands and sat up—my fingers didn't hurt at all. I practically chewed through the wraps to get a good look at them.

 _My hands were perfectly healed_. It was unbelievable. That symbol took days to get me in working order when I was at Costa's but this one—the one I drew—wasted no time at all. I had to see what it did for my right eye.

Six looked at me from his rocking chair when I moved through the living room. "Hey, why'd you take—" He was more surprised than I was by what my hands looked like. "That's _unreal_ , man. You were crippled for life!"

"Apparently not," I said and passed into the washroom. I pulled at the wrap around my head until it unraveled.

I should have known it was too much to ask to be healed entirely. The glyph closed up the scars and healed the flesh around my eye but it still left an empty hole behind my eyelid. I had my hands back but I was still blind in one eye. It wasn't the worst thing to deal with, but I was still bitter over the fact that it had happened at all.

Six followed me around while I gathered my things. "Sure you want to leave so soon? The Watch and the army—"

"Should have their hands full with the aftermath. I told you I'd rather hide in my own hideout." I stopped to think about the past night and looked at him over my shoulder. "Thanks, Six. I owe you a lot." Having only one eye was affecting my mood. I needed some time alone to truly feel like myself again.

* * *

It took a few days for Baron Stonebridge's army to fan out the flames and trim the overgrowth from the damaged districts. Most of the attack happened to the north and west, where the Old Quarter and historically wealthy districts were. That forced a lot of people to squeeze together who would have rather stayed on opposite sides of the fence from each other. It was all a golden opportunity for the petty criminals that stuck around and I would have been right out there with them if not for obvious reasons.

I expected more people to flee under the circumstances but the Baron had enough resources to give them reason to stick around. Relief carts brought the freshest food and water that Stonemarket had seen in over a year. For once, the horses only had to pull the carts and weren't going to be mixed in with the produce piled in them. Even the Watch's dogs were let out of their cages to make room for livestock that was meant to be eaten. It was almost suspicious how quickly the Baron supplied everyone with the means to survive while The City was in ruins but I had enough problems of my own not to dwell on it.

For a while, I only made trips away from the clock tower to gather food and other supplies. My thieving days weren't over but living with only one eye was making it hard for me to get back into the swing of things—something that was admittedly out of character for me. Normally I adapted quickly to new situations but this was one I just couldn't get used to.

* * *

Rumor woke me up out of a dead sleep. The macaw sang my name in my ear and I almost snapped her neck; fortunately for her, a blue haze clouded my vision and stopped me from closing my hands around her.

The haze lifted and I saw Rumor as a chick in my hand... Only it wasn't my hand. A woman held her in both hands during a party that was playing out where the shelf and wall stood near my bed. I sat up and watched her accept the chick as a gift from an explorer.

I let go of the bird and the scene changed to show Rumor flying around The City. She was with a girl that looked like Scribe but much younger. A bolt struck Rumor in the thigh and the girl almost caught one in her leg, but she managed to climb over a rooftop with seconds to spare. Rumor spiraled down into an alley and couldn't get away from the man that was shooting at them both.

What was I seeing? The beginning and end of the bird's life? Why was the primal showing this to me?

A pair of familiar hands slipped over my eyes from behind. " _Notice anything different?_ " I knocked Erin's hands away and nearly crushed Rumor when I spun at the sound of her voice.

"This is impossible." I vaguely remembered seeing her while I was drunk... Was I dreaming this? "Even if you _were_ back in The City, you wouldn't be able to get past the wards outside the tower."

" _Hiding behind wards, Garrett?_ " She shook her head with that know-it-all smirk that always irritated me. " _If I had known you were going to retire so soon, I would have stuck around to claim the Master Thief title._ "

This had to be a dream. I felt her hands touch my face but that could have just been my pillow while I was tossing and turning. I decided to play along for now. "What do you want?"

" _You know you can still see through your eye, don't you?_ "

"Is that all you came to tell me?" This dream wasn't useful at all.

" _Look at the bird, Garrett._ " Since her nest had been disturbed, Rumor settled on the edge of the crate closest to my bed. Other moments from her past and future played out in front of me but the scenes were overlapping and my head started to hurt from seeing so many. Then Erin reached out from behind me again—covering just my right eye this time. The visions stopped immediately.

" _What did the Queen of Beggars say to you? You'll see better without it?_ "

She moved her hand and the visions returned. Whatever this was had to have kicked in recently. I wouldn't have noticed because I kept my eye wrapped when I wandered the streets. But if I could see the past and future, I had to be able to see the present. I looked for Erin to ask that question and found her staring into the barrel that I used to collect rainwater.

I couldn't see anything from her past or future—that's how I knew she had to be some illusion the primal was using to spur me to action. "I'm done saving this city," I told her. "I'll take my sight however I can get it, but I'm not fighting anymore battles for you or the Keepers."

She laughed that ignorant laugh that was burned into my memory, then wandered to the railing near the clock's gears. "The primal is yours now, Garrett. You can either control it, or it can control you." This time she climbed between the beams and lowered herself into the clockworks to disappear from my sight.


	3. The Family Man

**Part 3: The Family Man**

I didn't like the idea of the primal imitating what I remembered about Erin but it did a good job of picking out the parts of her that pushed me to go further. I spent the next few days in the shadows of Stonemarket, people-watching to gain control of my right eye. It didn't take long for me to learn how to concentrate on seeing the present—seeing the past of some of The City's "upstanding" citizens was motivation enough to get a handle on what I was shown.

Rumor made herself at home while I adjusted to my new sight—she even helped herself to my food. I checked her for a message several times but she didn't seem to have any to deliver. That made me wonder what happened to her mistress. I planned on checking in with Basso to see if he was back in town but it looked like my first real trip out of the clock tower would take me to Eel's End.

* * *

Six was home with Addi when I arrived. She was falling asleep on his shoulder and he spoke in a whisper when he greeted me. "Oi, Garrett—" He was caught off-guard by my empty eye socket. I stopped covering my right eye and the sight had to have been off-putting.

"Not going to patch that or stitch it over? You look as grim as a grave."

I kept my voice low so I wouldn't undo his hard work getting his daughter to sleep. "Most people don't get to see my face. Where's the amateur fence?" I pushed Rumor off my shoulder and she flew to her perch near Scribe's desk.

"She's not returned from her deliveries yet." Even in a whisper, Six couldn't disguise the worry in his tone. If Rumor's sleepover was any indication of how long Scribe had been gone, there was no telling what might have happened to her.

While my mind wandered thoughtfully at the situation, a flash of movement pulled my attention across the room. I was seeing Six-Fingers in his rocking chair but he looked much older than he does now. He was missing his right hand and the lower half of his left leg and looked completely defeated by life. There was no doubt in my mind that I was seeing his future, but how did he get this way?

The front door opened and I expected to see Scribe walk in. The girl that entered was the same one from Rumor's future but she was dressed like a dockfrock. She carried a basket of food over to Six and they split it between themselves with matching looks of shame in their eyes. Was this how Addi was going to grow up? Her mother would never let her work the Skinmarket... if she returned home.

"Garrett?"

I turned around and saw a different scene: The older Six counted coins from a bag and all of his limbs were in tact. Scribe sat at her lectern with a boy on her lap, teaching him to read. The whole family stopped what they were doing to welcome Addi home when she climbed in through a window. This time, she was wearing the cloth and leather of a proper thief and had the spoils of her trip to brag about.

This was their future if Scribe was found. I thought I had better control of my visions but the primal clearly wanted me to do something about what I saw. Well, I did owe Six for being in the right place at the right time.

"Oi, mate. You all right?" He put a hand on my shoulder and I looked at him. "You were staring off like mom for a minute there." Addi was well asleep by now and he tucked her deep in the cloth of a covered basket. "We should also do something about that eye; I mean, it's really hard to look at. How's about a patch? No, wait. I got something better."

I watched him root around in a small chest. "Where did Scribe go to make her deliveries?"

"Here." Six pitched a velvet bag at me and I looked inside. There were eyes staring back at me: Glass eyes of different colors. I held off on asking him where they came from since a more pressing matter was at hand.

"Tell me you're not about to take a baby with you on a manhunt."

" _No_ , Ruby watches her for us when we're out."

"Ruby Rosewater?" I scoffed. "A baby sounds like just the decoration for her line of work."

"Well I'd leave her with you but you're not much of a family man, are you?"

"Or, you could stay here with her while _I_ go." I stepped in front of him to block his path. "Tell me where Scribe went and I'll go look for her. You shouldn't leave Addi with Rosewater; what if she's on the job?"

We kept our voices low for the baby's sake but the tension was rising between us. Six might have thought I was underestimating him but after what I saw in his possible future, I couldn't let him ruin so many lives.

"Ruby watches Addi for us all the time." Six's whisper had a growl to it. "You'd know that if you came by more often and less for business. Now stand off."

He tried to step around me but I stayed at his front. "Stay here and watch your kid, Six-Fingers. If you go after Scribe—"

"I'm not going on about this with you, Garrett!" His sharp whisper caught me off-guard. "You don't know what it is to be a man of the house, do you? _Looking out for others?_ I'm not just gonna have a sit while the people I love are lost!"

I didn't have time for the direction this conversation was going and I was sure Scribe didn't, either. I started to interrupt him again but his mouth ran down a road that he was going to regret.

"You don't care about us other than the thrill of the job. Same as you always were: Favoring people as long as they're useful to you. Like how you kept yourself _warm in the winter_ with Lorena and left her _cold come spring!_ Maybe if you gave a shit then, she'd still be here and could help—"

I jabbed him in the throat before either of us knew it happened.

Six struggled to breath for a while and I kept him up by his shoulders. Since Addi was still asleep, I let my voice gain a little volume to emphasize how serious I was. "I'm coming with you because I owe you, and trust me when I say you're going to need my help. But whatever you think, and however it eats you up inside, you better _never_ blame me for Lorena's death to my face again."

Once he agreed I let him go, then went to the wash room to try out a few of the eyes. Wearing a used glass eye wasn't comfortable at all and I couldn't see through any of them with the primal but they were giving me some ideas. I kept them with me so I could study them and come up with an alternative at a later time. For now, anyone who bothered to look at me would just have to be disturbed.

* * *

Cragscleft hadn't been a functioning mine in years. Once it was dried up and abandoned, different gangs used it as a hideout but every time their activities drew too much attention to themselves, The City would send its army through to sweep the place clean. The latest gang to make an occupation called themselves the Quarrymen and did a better job keeping their business quieter than the ones that came before them. I never had a reason to look in on them before but since this was where Scribe was scheduled to make her last delivery, Six and I were about to find out just what sort of racket they were running.

The Quarrymen were living in the old facility at the top of the mountain. We went in through a mine shaft at the foot and followed the rusted cart rails up to the abandoned foundry. All of the good metals and parts were already stripped from the machines and only a few of the gang were in the area, desperately scrounging the scrap for something else to sell. They avoided the rusty walkways that hung awkwardly along the machinery, which gave Six and I the perfect path to the prison.

It seemed the Quarrymen were in the business of human trafficking. Each prison cell was occupied by men and women who'd been drugged so they wouldn't disturb the peace and quiet. None of the doors had locks on them but they were designed to slide open and closed with a switch. We didn't see Scribe in any of the cells we first passed but we weren't ruling out the idea that she might have been included in their cargo.

"Oi, Lars!" We stopped around separate corners of an intersection while two of the thugs met in the middle. "She put up a hell of a fight, didn't she? The little ones are always so scrappy. Must be why Brenner loves them so much."

Lars didn't look so amused. He had a patch over his left eye and his face looked like he had been in a fight with a stray cat and lost. I didn't need to look into the past to tell this was Scribe's handiwork and neither did Six. One of his fists was clenched so tight it was shaking.

"Shit's not funny, Greg." Lars shoved Greg in the shoulder and massaged a few scratches on his own face. "The bitch should be quiet now but I'm gonna go give her something to cry about."

"Mind the bruises. Brenner won't pay good if she looks used." Greg and Lars went their separate ways and we followed the latter with an idea of who he was going to see.

The cell block we entered had a few young girls and small women separated out from the rest of the gang's inventory. Lars stopped by a guard post first and pulled the switch on cell three, then made his way down to the cell block floor. There weren't any discreet places to store a body on the way to the open cell so he went unharmed until he reached his destination.

"I know you can hear me in there, bitch." Lars unbuckled his belt and let his pants slide down to his ankles. "I'm not leavin' this cell until every scratch on my face feels better."

" _Hey!_ " He turned to Six's sharp whisper and caught a crossbow bolt right in his budding erection. I could have knocked them both out for the scream he made but I only struck Lars from behind.

"Lars! You okay in there?"

We dragged him into the open cell and dumped him in a free corner. Scribe was chained to the wall and could barely respond with the drugs they used on her. I worked quickly to unlock all of her cuffs while Six let her know we were there. "It's okay, babe. We're gonna get you out of here. We're gonna get you home."

"Hey!" One of the Quarrymen saw us from the common area. "Close number three! We got thieves!"

I took the crossbow from Six and stuck it in the track of the door before it could close; there was metal in the bow but it wouldn't hold for long. Then I dove through the gap and bounced the thug's head against the nearest wall. Six struggled to move Scribe through the doorway until I rushed over to help. He was the last to get out and barely got his left leg through the doorway before it slammed shut.

 _The vision._ That had to have been where he was injured enough to lose part of his leg.

We ducked through an alternate tunnel and had to circle around to evade the guards but I could hear the whole gang piling in from the upper level. Meanwhile, the thugs working in the foundry were trying to figure out what was going on. They had their swords drawn and looked ready to use them. We moved as quietly as we could to get past them but just as we reached the mines, Scribe had a fit and the noise drew their attention.

Six was too busy calming her down to defend himself. I backed around a corner to hide and when one of the men rushed them with his sword raised, I caught him in the side and shoved him down a long shaft. Another one came at Six while I was too far to reach him but I was focused enough to draw my bow and shoot him in the neck with a blunt arrow. All Six did was raise his right hand to defend himself. He would have lost it and Scribe if I hadn't been there to help him.

We made it out of the mine well ahead of the gang and I left an explosive canister on a tripwire as a parting gift. Cragscleft was close enough to The City that the explosion would draw the attention of the Watch and the Baron's army. They wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't pay the place a routine visit and something needed to remind them of that.

* * *

We took Scribe to Maurus so he could work the drug out of her system faster. She was still going to need rest but at least she was safe and Six was unharmed.

The way he acted during her rescue had irritated me. "You almost screwed that up, you know that?"

At first he couldn't tear his attention away from Maurus. "Don't know what you're talking about."

"You could have lost everything because you reacted like an _amateur._ If I hadn't been there to help you, you would have lost Scribe for good. You could have lost your leg in that door, or your hand when those thugs swung their steel at you."

He frowned at me when my words finally hit him. "What the hell do you know?"

"I know what I saw." I was going to tell him exactly what my vision showed me: His missing limbs and Addi's future. The son he was going have in the years to come. I wanted him to know what his stupidity almost cost him. Then my mind went back to an argument the Queen of Beggars and I had a while ago.

 _You would be living in anticipation of events to come._

If I told Six what I saw, that would ruin his life in a different way. That was why she could never tell me exactly what was waiting for me. If she had started doing that when I was younger, I would have never developed the strength of will to do anything on my own.

Six pushed my shoulder and took me out of my thoughtful stare. "What the taff are you on, eh?"

I shook my head and left Maurus' home. "Just do better. You've got a family to think about."


	4. Back in the Swing of Things

**Part 4: Back in the Swing of Things**

I already had some ideas on how I planned to make a new eye for myself. If a gem worked for that witch that tried to raise an army of Gloomers, then that had to be the key to keeping these visions under control. All the other elements of the design were forming in my head but my train of thought was interrupted by my unwanted tagalong.

After I helped myself to Lygrove's supply of tourmalines, I was stopped in the underpass by Erin's voice. " _So you do still steal when it suits you? I thought being a hero meant you weren't allowed._ "

"Whatever this is needs to stop." I turned to confront her but she hadn't appeared yet. "I'm not helping you or the Keepers anymore, so get that through whatever you have that passes for a head."

" _I have YOUR head, Garrett!_ " Erin jumped me from behind and draped her arms over my shoulders. I stepped away before she could complete the hug. " _You have way too much unfinished business to get rid of me now._ " Her laugh echoed in my ears. It started to make my right eye ache all over again.

"I said I'm DONE!" The pain hit harder this time but at least the laughter stopped. "Whatever the Keepers meant for me to be, they should have made it happen when I was too young to know any better. I'm not this city's guardian. I'm a criminal, and I've let your cult use me far too long without any real reward. And now I've lost my eye."

" _You'll have to approach them sometime, Garrett. They need you as much as I need you, and I'm not leaving you until I get what I want._ "

She taunted me with her smile and disappeared. I sighed to myself, then looked down at an old beggar squatting in his own piss. He was the only other person in the underpass.

"Sometimes the voices win," he mumbled, then curled up to sleep in his self-made puddle. He watched the argument but obviously couldn't see Erin's side of it. That was another good reason why I had to get a handle on what was happening to me.

It took a few days to craft a new eye and a few replacements for myself. I tried several gemstones but the light blue tourmalines seemed to have the best response. Once I solved that puzzle, the next challenge was shaping the rest of the eye so it would turn naturally. The round ones Six stole may have been for looks and nothing else—the ones I made had to be dented a certain way to make them move. I would never be happy about losing my eye in the first place but I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with the replacement. My new eye made it a lot easier for me to control what the primal tried to force me to see.

* * *

It was time to go back to doing what I did best. Word on the street was that Basso had returned and already handed out jobs to a few amateurs who couldn't keep their mouths shut. Since we hadn't seen each other for a while, I thought I might drop by his office bearing gifts. I followed a few of the talkative thieves around town to see where their jobs were taking them.

The first amateur stopped in Middler's Row to pick a lock on one of the old homes. I winced every time the lock clicked loud enough to attract attention and counted the seconds before a nosy woman called for the Watch. While that thief ran for his life, I slipped in through an open window and found the safe he would have if he had been a little more observant.

The second amateur made it into her destination along Baron's Way North, but by the time I caught up to her, burglary had become a hostage situation. She had a jeweler and his wife bound and gagged on the showroom floor, but their baby had woken up and was wailing from the living quarters. It wouldn't be long before the patrolman knocking on the front door would try to break it down. I shook my head at all of them while I slipped into the cellar and found the bag of gems she should have already had in her hands.

The final pair I followed took so long to make their move, I was already in and out of the house before they unlocked the back door. All that planning they argued over was a waste of time when the woman they were stealing from was a heavy sleeper who wore her jewelry to bed. I watched from a roof across the street while they stumbled around enough to wake her up. If this was the next generation of the criminal world, the crime rate was going to reach an all-time low and the new City Watch was going to take all the undue credit.

* * *

Basso wasn't alone when I approached his office and I waited until his company left. He was speaking to a plain-faced woman and looked as if he was enjoying the conversation. The woman may have appeared to share his interest but there were subtle movements in her body language that told me it was all an act. Whether she was a client or his latest Skinmarket companion, I wasn't going to let him live down that cockleash look on his face.

"If you're going to marry her, Basso, at least let it be for the money."

He startled easily enough but was too glad to see me to be upset. "Heh, yeah. The day I agree to get married again is the day you agree to be my best man." His good cheer changed when he noticed my new accessory. " _Garrett..._ "

"I'm fine."

" _You_ lost an eye? What the hell happened! Did you fall off a roof and land head-first onto a bag of gems?"

That wasn't the direction I expected this conversation to go in, but I took it. "Something like that."

"Jeez, look at it." He came around his desk and practically backed me into a corner while he studied the jewel in my glass eye. "Huh. Never figured you for the jewelry-wearing type. You sure you're all right?"

I held out the items that the amateurs were supposed to steal for him. "Doing better than those mouthy jacknalls you sent out to work for you."

Basso shook his head and took what I had. "Should have known better than to hire rakers who drink up their pay in the Black Alley Piss Trough." He walked the goods to his safe and I finally had some breathing room. "Next thing you know, they'll be leadin' the City Watch right to my door. Not that they don't already know I'm here, but the last thing I need is for one of them to set foot over my doorstep on official Watch business. You up for another job?"

Now that I was warmed up, I was eager to try my hand at something a bit more challenging. "What do you have?"

"Well, your new best friend's been looking for you. His associate's come by a few times asking me to send you to his manor house. Maybe you should check in with him before he sends a search party."

Baron Stonebridge... "Does he have a dog door I can use or should I just knock at the servant's entrance?" I hoped this wasn't going to become a habit. Being on a Baron's payroll may have been profitable but it wasn't good for my reputation.

Basso didn't seem to see it that way. "You need to court this guy, Garrett; he's clientele I can't afford to lose. The wall around his manor's trussed up like a chastity belt but once you get past that, there should be enough holes in the unfinished house to make touring the property a breeze."

"Fine." I could have said no but I was slightly interested in that tour. At the very least, I could get back a little more of what I felt I was owed for helping The City. "I'll bring back a few souvenirs."

* * *

The Baron's manor stood on the highest hill in Auldale: An imposing fortress of stone and iron that would ward away lesser thieves on looks alone. Its wall looked as impossible as Basso described but I wasn't the type to turn from that kind of challenge. I found a spot behind the property where loose stones had fallen away from the ground beneath the wall.

The yard was overly-landscaped as usual and I easily avoided the patrol pattern of the guards. I made it inside the keep through the unfinished west wing, then felt an unexpected draw to the east—it felt like the pull that lead me to The Eye in Constantine's manor. I ignored it at first but the closer I came to the center of the building, the more I felt drawn to the source of that feeling. Had the Baron somehow managed to retake The Eye from the marsh-dwellers? It seemed the primal wasn't going to leave me alone until I found out for myself.

* * *

I was being drawn to a chapel... One of the Baron's priests let the doors close on their own while he walked and talked with a soldier. I slipped into the sanctuary and ducked behind a pew while two servants finished sweeping the floor. By then the draw was so intense I had to catch a glimpse of the altar where it was coming from.

That golden goblet the Baron had before... It was standing on a pedestal below a stained glass window. The candles and other decorations seemed a bit much for something that wasn't crusted in jewels but there was obviously more to it than meets the eye.

" _Don't hesitate now, Garrett._ " Erin's image loomed over my shoulder. " _That cup is practically within reach._ "

After the servants left, I crept into the pulpit and stood in front of the altar. The piece looked valuable enough to earn a place in my pocket but I wasn't sure that I wanted something the primal lead me to find. Not after everything else that happened to me.

" _What's the matter? Afraid you'll be punished in the Maw for taking a holy relic?_ "

"Why am I being drawn to this cup? What's so special about it?"

"It is the Master Builder's chalice, and it bestows His blessings and wrath on those who would drink from it."

I didn't like it when other people got the drop on me but in this case I was glad to see Baron Stonebridge sitting in the front row. All of my normal senses went on high alert and drowned out that overwhelming urge to stay near the chalice. "You're rather calm for someone who found a thief in his midst."

The Baron didn't have a weapon or a guard with him but he kept his seat even though he watched my hand move closer to my belt. "If I thought there was any danger of you leaving with that I might have the chapel surrounded by guards, but I'm sure it's going nowhere, unlike other items of mine that I've opted to ignore."

His relaxed posture encouraged me to lower my hand. He may have looked amused but I still kept my distance. "You got a job for me, or are you trying to give me the chance to repent?"

"I think that would be a waste. You don't seem like the type to harbor any beliefs."

"Beliefs?" Now _I_ was amused. "I don't have to 'believe' in something I've seen with my own eyes, but the old gods have tried to kill me, so you'll have to excuse me if I continue to skip church for a while."

"If it is well with your soul, it is well with mine." The Baron stood up and approached the chalice. I stepped out of the pulpit to keep that healthy distance between us. "The lieutenant wasn't sure if you had The Eye or not. Does that mean the marsh-dwellers have it?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I didn't know?"

"If you were any other thief, no." He turned to look at me. "I need to find out where it is. I'll understand if you don't want to be anywhere near it, but if you could at least discover its location, I can move soldiers in to retrieve it. Would you be up for that?"

He was right about me not wanting anything else to do with The Eye, but if all he wanted was information, that wouldn't be the worst job to take that involved The Eye or the Pagans. "I'll see what I can find out," I said and turned to leave.

"I'd also like back those earrings you stole."

I stopped with my hand on the door. He was talking about a pair of amethyst earrings I took from a glass-covered portrait of an elegant woman.

"I don't think my late wife would appreciate it if her last birthday gift wandered its way to the black market while I was still breathing." The Baron approached me with his hand open. "Consider the rest your payment for services rendered, but leave those with me. Please."

There was a time when I would have twisted his arm and knocked him out for being stupid enough to ask so politely. Either I was getting old or that good heart the Keepers accused me of having was real after all. I took the earrings from where I hid them and dropped them into the Baron's hand. He didn't say anything else while I left but I had a feeling that we were gaining a better understanding of each other with each meeting.


	5. Word of Mouth

**Part 5: Word of Mouth**

After I left the Baron's property that ache came back to my eye socket. I made it up to the Thieves' Highway before it became painful enough to stop me in my tracks.

" _Forget something, Garrett? I thought you were a thief._ "

"How many times do I have to tell you that _what_ you steal is as important as how you steal it." I couldn't believe I was having another argument with this figment of my imagination. When I tried to move on the pain stopped me again.

" _That's just what I was thinking._ " Erin sounded cheerful at first but then her tone turned dangerous. " _Go back and get the chalice, Garrett._ "

"No." I had to steady myself. "You need to leave unless you want me to die. I can't get across the rooftops with you taunting me like this."

" _Not until you turn around and finish what you started._ "

I dropped to my hands and knees and she stood over me. Leading me around by the nose was one thing but if the primal thought it was going to use pain to push me around, it had another thing coming.

"I said LEAVE!" I barely saw the ring of blue fire that pushed out of me and cut through her image. Erin's distorted wail echoed in my head after she disappeared and at the same time, my arms and legs gave out. I landed face-down and had to lay there until I could feel my limbs again. At least that gave me time to think about what just happened. Being able to see through the primal wasn't worth it if I was going to be crippled in other ways. It was time to give it back to the Keepers.

* * *

It was hard to tell if the Queen of Beggars' court had been damaged by the marsh-dweller attack. Mourningside was already a ruined trench thanks to the days of the Gloom and the old cemetery was practically hidden in the shadows of tall buildings. The Queen hadn't tried to contact me since the Pagan attack but I assumed she stayed out of The City while it was going on. Now that things were getting back to normal, I expected to see her sitting in the old church waiting for me with her usual sly air of ignorance and cup of tea.

She was sitting near the altar of the chapel but there was something different about her—a halting stare that made me hesitant to set foot through the chapel's broken doorway. A jolt from the pit of my gut moved me forward anyway.

"What are you doing coming in here like this?" It was rare for me to feel intimidated by anyone, let alone someone as frail as her. A twinge in my eye forced the answer out of me.

"I need your help." That wasn't exactly what I meant to say but at least I had gotten to the point.

"You don't ask for help this way." Did she want me to be cryptic like her? I thought I had said that out loud but only after the fact did I realize my lips hadn't moved.

The Queen of Beggars stood tall. I tried to back out of the chapel but my legs wouldn't move. Was she using the primal against me? I didn't think it worked that way but after everything I'd seen lately I wasn't surprised. I was starting to wonder if she was the one who was manipulating me with Erin's image—until my mouth started to say things that weren't even on my mind.

"You're too old to threaten me, Beggar Woman. Be still and listen to what I have to say." Someone was speaking through me and they obviously had history with the Queen of Beggars. I tried to take control of myself but all I got for my trouble was a throbbing pain in my right eye.

My posture was dangerous but the Queen didn't back down. "I'll listen, but only if you leave him afterwards."

"No. I need him and I need you to listen. You is—"

"You can't have both." The Queen of Beggars lowered to her hands and knees. She looked like she was going to draw something in the dirt but whoever was in control of my body wasn't having that.

"Don't you dare," I growled and stepped forward with my hand on the claw. There was a familiar glow under the Queen's fingertips and as soon as my puppetmaster saw it, my legs took deeper strides.

I wasn't about to let this person use me to make their mistake. I tried harder this time—pushing through the pain in my head—and my stride had a misstep. The puppeteer must have felt the strain because I stopped with the Queen still outside of my reach. I still couldn't move but that was a start—and it was buying time for something I saw out the corner of my eye.

The puppeteer must not have seen it because he kept trying to talk. "You is here... You will kill your people and is already killing mine..." That didn't make any sense to me but it did stop the Queen of Beggars from completing what she was drawing. She looked ready to listen and I was a little curious as well but the speaker wasn't as aware of my surroundings as I was. The movement I saw out the corner of my eye was finally on me.

I knew it was a Keeper that was throwing me to the ground but it wasn't until he had his knee in my chest that I could see Costa's face under his hood. His eyes were brimming with primal energy but his scowl was calm. "By the gods, thief. What have you gotten yourself into this time."

I would have had some clever words for him but the puppeteer was still in control of my mouth. "Beggar Woman! You is in the old town! You will watch your city burn!" They sounded like empty threats but there had to be more to it. I wasn't at the right angle to see the Queen's reaction to what was being said.

Unlike the Queen of Beggars, Costa wasn't interested in the message. He pinned my wrists underneath his knee, then put a lot of weight on my throat with his free hand. I bet he was enjoying that. His other hand came at my face with a dagger covered in a dancing pattern of glyphs and the anxiety from my trauma shot up my spine. My body was in a panicked struggle that was influenced by me and the puppeteer equally. When the blade picked the glass eye from my socket, it uncorked a veil of darkness that swallowed my surroundings and left me laying alone in the quiet.

* * *

Something was lifting me off the ground by my shoulders. I was being dragged through ruined streets and houses—The Old Quarter. My body felt too heavy to struggle but I could see old buildings and signs that told me where I was being taken.

I barely remembered the room where they left me hanging by my arms. The walls were frosted in nitre. It looked like a cellar built into a cave. A small fire flashed in and out erratically—or was it movement in front of the fire that made it hard for me to see? Heated words echoed in front of me but I couldn't make them out. The Pagans sounded like they were speaking gibberish and I was having a hard time concentrating through all of the pain I was in.

I reminded myself that it was just a memory and that dulled the pain enough for me to focus more. I was left alone in the cellar for a while, then a group of shadows came back in and put their hands on me. They kept my head still while their priestess approached me: A woman with wild hair and skin almost as dark as Botsan. She was wearing that ring I remembered, but what I thought was a knife in her hand turned out to be a thick thorn that couldn't have grown from any plant in or around The City. When she pushed that thorn into my empty eye socket, all the reminder in the world couldn't tamp down the agony I remembered.

* * *

It could have been the pain or the yell that brought me out of the memory. I came back to the present just in time to wallow after Costa took his knee off my chest. "Breathe, Garrett. You should be fine now."

When I glared at him, I could see just how large the thorn was that had been shoved into my head. Even while it crumbled into dust, it looked too large to go without being seen for so long—let alone killing me. At least it was gone now. I looked around for my glass eye and felt less than grateful when Costa held it out to me.

"I thought you didn't want anything else to do with us," I muttered while I put my eye back in my head.

"I don't," he said and turned away from me. "But when an Elder calls, you come."

The Queen of Beggars stood up with Costa's help and I could tell that drawing only part of a glyph took a lot out of her. She eased into her chair and sat heavily against it. Now was not the time to ask her about removing the primal; then again, my problem may have been resolved if that thorn was the cause. I decided it was time to go back to my hideout and rest.

"Garrett." The weakness in her voice stopped me, but only for a moment. I meant it when I said I didn't want anything else to do with the Keepers. If they missed the message that Pagan tried to deliver through me, that was their problem, not mine.


	6. Blood of the Cityhead

**Part 6: Blood of the Cityhead**

Basso already had another job for me the next night, even though I hadn't finished the one that was supposed to earn the most money. I tried to hurry across Stonemarket to see what he wanted but I ended up taking a scenic route. The City Watch's patrols had been on the rise and they were accompanied by soldiers from the Baron's army. I didn't hear anything about a curfew but Stonebridge may have just been on edge with The Eye still out there.

Basso was quick to remind me when he finally noticed me past the bowl of his pipe. "Get whatever the Baron wants yet? I haven't seen fresh coins scattered across my desk, Garrett."

His hammers had certainly gotten bigger since the day before. The faint hint of perfume in the air told me why. "I'll find it," I grumbled. "What do you want?"

"There's an evacuation going down in the Old Quarter. Something about a riot breaking out near Taffton." He pointed to a few key areas on the map spread out across his desk. "One of my clients left a few precious heirlooms behind but the Baron's army won't let anybody in to get anything. I need you to grab everything on this list, and maybe anything else in the area that looks worth a trip to the pawn."

I stared down at the paper he slid over the map but didn't pick it up. Perfume, earrings, a gilded brush—this didn't sound like an everyday job. It sounded like I was getting all the gifts on his list to give his recent visitor.

"You know how I feel about being lied to, don't you, Basso?" I fixed my stare on him until the truth came out.

"Hey, don't judge me. Some of us get our thrills in other ways; we can't all climb tall buildings and aim piss at the Watchdogs."

I stared at him a lot longer after that but not for the reason he thought. "I'll get your list," I grumbled so he knew I wasn't happy about it. After what I saw with my primal eye, I knew this was going to be one inconvenient step towards a much more satisfying moment for me down the road.

* * *

I spent a lot of time in the Old Quarter when I was cutting my teeth as a thief. The thin roads and alleys made it easy to bottle in targets, and the old architecture had a lot of good foot and handholds for climbing. Thanks to the Gloom and the Graven riots, there were more children than ever breaking in their skills on what was left of the streets. They kept the City Watch busy while I worked my way to the blockades set up by the Baron's men.

Orphans young and old made their homes in an area called Taffton: A shantytown that sprang up in the shadows of Old Quarter's ruined buildings. That city within The City had been around since the days of the boy baron, but it may have finally reached the end of its own era. Watchmen were combing its empty walkways for holdouts and helping themselves to any keepsakes that were left behind. I found several hidden stashes they missed on my way to the edge that bordered the evacuation zone.

I slipped through a hole in a one-room shack into an alley beyond the blockade. At the mouth of the alley, I stopped to watch the patrol pattern of a group of soldiers.

They kept in tight formation and on high alert—though they missed me when they went by. The soldier at the head of the formation called out the same speech over and over:

"By order of Baron Stonebridge, all citizens are to evacuate the area! If you are hurt or in need of escort, call out and we will assist you!"

A few stragglers rushed out of their homes and ran in the direction they were told. I slipped down a different path but had to stick to the roads. Too many rooftops had collapsed and that kept me grounded. Fortunately, the area was already a ghost town. As long as I avoided the soldiers, I was free to help myself to all the valuables people abandoned in a hurry.

A woman's wail dragged my attention down the street. I could see her shuffling forward in a daze, mumbling while her own hands pulled at her bloodied dress like they had minds of their own.

Something was unsettling about that woman. I tried to look at her past to see what happened to her but she didn't have one. No past, and no future.

The sound of footsteps pushed me back into the shadows but I kept my attention out on the street. A soldier approached the woman while his teammates stood guard.

He walked and talked slowly towards her. "It's all right, ma'am. I am with the Baron's guard. We are here to help you. You are safe now."

The woman turned to him and put her hands on his shoulders as soon as he came within her reach. He drew her closer to himself and leaned in to hear what she was mumbling.

She bit into his chin and tore the meat off the side of his face.

I was stunned but not enough to stop watching. The soldiers tried being gentle with the mad woman but now they didn't have time to waste on someone who couldn't be helped. One man butt her in the back of the head with his hammer to knock her off his teammate—at the very least that should have knocked her out cold but she got up again and reached for the nearest man like she wasn't already _chewing on a mouthful of human flesh_. They shoved her to the ground twice and she stood up both times. One of the soldiers even knocked her knee backwards to keep her down—I nearly flinched when it happened. _She stood up and limped on it like it was nothing!_

The woman wouldn't stop grasping and biting at them so the soldiers did the only thing they could to help her. Two of them pinned her to the cobblestones with their hammers while a third used his to send her on her way.

I knew madness when I saw it. Rabid beggars were known to bite but they were usually weak from hunger and easily pushed aside. They certainly wouldn't keep trying if you broke one of their legs... This was something else entirely. I turned away from the street while the soldiers rushed by me with their injured man. They looked as shaken as I felt but they didn't have time to dwell on what happened. I did but it was going to be in the comfort of my own hideout. It was time for me to make an exit.

Another shriek grabbed my attention but it was more like a call or a signal. Then another responded to it from the opposite direction. Nevermind the exit—I was going to need a better hiding place.

* * *

Marsh-dwellers. Two of them stopped near the woman's body to scout the area before a third made his approach. He had the posture of someone in charge—even had a symbol like the Trickster's third eye painted on the crown of his bald head—but he was older and thinner than the two warriors that escorted him. I didn't think that would help my odds if they found me. Good thing the storeroom I squat in was far enough down the road that it wouldn't be on their immediate list of places to raid.

I watched and listened through a small gap in the window I came through. The warriors kept their eyes on the road while their escort stooped over the body. He took a crystal from the pelts draped on his shoulders and thoroughly coated it in the woman's blood. A grim souvenir, perhaps, but when the crystal absorbed the blood I knew there was more to it than that.

"Blood of the cityhead. Them bes what pleasers the Maw most." If he thought feeding the blood of an ill woman to the Maw would increase his luck, then he probably didn't come from there like the Pagans that came with Viktoria.

Floorboards creaked in the storeroom but I didn't turn around to look. I couldn't see anyone in the window pane in front of me and the groan that followed told me they might be injured. Sure enough, the figure that stumbled into the background of the warped reflection moved like he was dazed and holding himself. I kept my eyes on the glass and ears outside while I eased my hand closer to my blackjack.

"Spreads manfools blood liker marshes waters. Letters them feasts, one on another. Manfool father on manfool brother. Manfool mother on manfool daughter. Whens them ground drinks deeping of them life, it blessers them earth to begin anew."

The Pagans were responsible for the woman's madness in the first place—not surprising at all. They may have also gotten to the man shuffling behind me. He was fumbling around in the dark like he had no sense of his surroundings. I slowly glanced over my shoulder to get a look at the condition he was in.

The man was in no condition to be standing or breathing for that matter. I turned all the way around to stare at the bib of flesh that hung from his neck. His right leg had been eaten through the trouser but he still walked on it, just like that woman. _What kind of madness was this?_ It was like he didn't even know he was dying—

—Or already dead.

It made sense when I tried to examine him with the primal. There was nothing there, just like before. He was a walking corpse scrounging aimlessly in the dark. Well it was one thing to die foolishly and another to have your body used in a Pagan scheme. First-hand experience taught me that. I put away the blackjack and reached for something heavier to put him out of his misery.

A grunt warned me in time to move my hand away from the shelf I was reaching towards. There was a boy on the other side and he tried to grab me. The gore on his face told me he was dead like his father—distasteful, but also inconvenient for me, especially when his brother showed himself. They pushed the shelf over with their combined fumbling and blocked the window that would have been my quickest escape option.

I rolled away from the shelf while it fell and side-stepped in time to avoid the sudden interest their father had in me. The brothers moved a little quicker than he did and the three of them together were ready to corner me in the back of the store room. Moments like this were a perfect opportunity for the primal to prove that it was here to help me. I could see myself giving the man the hammerhead treatment, but even with their father's blood on their faces and hands, I didn't want to be responsible for taking care of the boys.

A waft of fabric clinging to a low shelf caught my attention. I moved in time to avoid the smallest boy's lunge and yanked the shelf away from the duct it was hiding. There wasn't a grate to deal with but that also meant I couldn't block the path behind me. Both boys followed me into the shaft.

* * *

They weren't as fast while they were crawling but neither was I. We followed the twists and turns until the end of the line let us out into a sewer tunnel: Now I had a lot more room to put some distance between us. I turned to follow the upstream around a corner.

I had almost forgotten that monsters made of wood were something to look out for, but the wall of bark I nearly ran into let off a deep growl to remind me. The tree beast was blocking the tunnel and raised its claws to show me that I wasn't going that way—which meant I had to backtrack and follow the downstream until I could find another turn. At least the boys were easy to get around, but I could hear a waterfall up ahead, and chances were that meant a drop deeper below The City.

Of course there were bars in front of the drop. The tunnel lead straight to it with no deviations. I thought I might have to deal with the brothers after all—then I heard the tree beast overtake them. It drowned out their grunts with its own until all I could hear was rushing water. I tried not to think about what it meant since I might be next.

After trying to get through the bars a few times, I spun around with a fire canister in hand but that tree was quicker than it looked and it was already too close to use the canister safely. I started to trade the fire for a flash bomb before I noticed the beast had stopped coming at me. It was blocking my path but it wasn't trying to attack. Not only that but its growl had a pattern to it, like it was trying to speak.

I tried to side-step around it and it flexed its claws to stop me. It repeated its pattern of barks and growls like I didn't hear it the first time. I shook my head and shrugged quietly, doubtful that it would understand me anymore than I understood it. Then the tree turned its back on me. It barked a different pattern of grunts over its shoulder, took a few strides, then repeated the barks when I didn't move right away. Interesting. I decided to follow so it wouldn't think I was being uncooperative.


	7. Deal or No Deal

**Part 7: Deal or No Deal**

I was going to slip off at the first chance I got but now I was curious. The tree went beyond the sewer to a part of the underground where The City was built on top of itself. Old street signs were too overgrown with moss for me to make them out but the architecture wasn't that different from the oldest buildings that still stood in The City. I was a little enthralled by this sightseeing tour—especially when the path became marked by twisted trees and glowing poppy flowers. It always seemed like the deeper I went below The City, the closer I came to the primal's source.

The tree beast approached a cottage in the middle of a cavern where the moss spread like an open field. Part of the cottage collapsed a long time ago but the primal trees and flowers kept the rest of it upright. My escort took one last look at me before it joined three others standing on either side of a path to the door. They all looked like any other primal tree once they stood still and lifted their arms. That made me wonder just how surrounded I was.

In a space so wide there was no harm in playing along but I wasn't about to enter that possible death trap. I waited at the edge of the field.

When the door finally opened I almost turned and left. That priestess who took my eye and replaced it with a thorn looked at me like she was wondering why I wasn't eager to come in. "You come all this way, sneaksie man, you stand outside?"

"The last time we were in a room together, I lost something that I would prefer not to lose again." I kept my distance, especially since the trees were starting to look like they didn't care for my tone.

"I no after your other eye, sneaksie. I need your help."

I scoffed and backed up to start leaving. "I get that, but I'm not feeling too helpful after what happened. Thank your tree for the tour."

"You do no want to help, but you do want all this to go away. Do you need this to make it so?" I was this close to taking off when she pulled the sealed book from the folds of her robe: The one I'd gotten from Madame Xiao-Xiao. Maybe she didn't know what she had but that was all the more reason for me to get it away from her.

"I'm listening," I called and moved back to the edge of the clearing. If she expected that to coax me inside she had another thing coming, but at least she had my attention.

The priestess finally got the hint and stepped further away from her cottage. "This war were not supposed to be. It needs to end."

An interesting point of view now that the marsh-dwellers were losing to the Baron's men. "Get to the point. That book doesn't mean as much to me as you think."

She called my bluff. "Sneaksie man be gone if that were so. But my people time be short, too. You will destroy them."

Maybe I didn't understand her as well as I thought. "Me? I don't want anything more to do with your people."

" _You_." She tapped the bark on a tree beast and I suddenly realized what she was saying. "Yew. One of us, we thought. I know better now. Yew no love the earth and life as we. Yew lusts after death, and use my people to make it so."

"I'm still waiting for why I'm here," I growled. She wasn't going to make me feel sorry for her or the marsh-dwellers. Not after what they did to me.

"A trade, manfool!" The trees reacted to her bark by looking at me with their hollow eyes. At least a dozen more creaked around the cavern when they also turned to look at me. I decided to be a little more polite in the future but I wasn't losing my patience any slower.

"I know you have one of the Trickster's gifts in your care! You give to me, so that I save my people. I give you the book."

I had to think for a moment to remember what she was talking about: The dried paw and the crown I took when I stole The Eye. The crown hadn't spoken to me since I threw it in the water barrel and the paw... Well, it didn't seem that special. But they were both in the Trickster's house so there had to be more to it. I didn't know if the book was worth whatever trouble she might be able to cause with something from an old god, and that begged another question:

"The Eye isn't good enough for you?"

"The Eye were taken, by Yew."

Infighting is a terrible thing but I still didn't feel like this deal was going to work in my favor. "I'll think about it," I called as I turned to leave again. The tree that lead me here rumbled and that made me wary.

The priestess's eyebrows nearly touched the bottom of her beaded headband by the time it finished talking. "Sneaksie man were chased by the dead?"

I stopped but didn't say anything. She already had her report from the tree. But the fact that I stopped pulled a lot of tension in her brow. She wasn't on board with whatever Yew was doing to The City. That may have been what I needed to see to make my decision.

"I'll bring it tomorrow." Which would buy me time to finish a few jobs and prepare for my continuous and unwanted involvement in all this.

The priestess shook her head and came forward more. "Tomorrow may be too late, sneaksie man. I need the gift now!"

I tried not to sound too pitiless to her plight. "Well it's not on me so you're going to have to wait."

"I come to your tower and we make the trade."

"You won't make it inside." Not with the wards in place, but I did want to be done with this transaction as soon as possible. "The plaza outside of the tower. Let's meet there."

That answer finally satisfied her. All of the trees stopped watching us and she drifted back to the cottage. I made my way through the ruins and used the first working door I could find to head home.

* * *

I had the upper hand in this situation because the priestess only thought I kept one of the Trickster's tools—that meant I could pick which one to trade. I hadn't bothered to appraise either of them since I never planned on sending them to market, but of what I'd observed so far, the crown seemed like it might be the most powerful of the two. I decided to leave it in its watery grave.

There was a lot of noise outside my window all of a sudden. When I looked down, I could vaguely make out the green fabric on the priestess's robe moving through the plaza; not exactly ideal for stealth. The few people who were out this late were gathering into a crowd near her and it looked like the City Watch was closing in. I took the paw with me just in case but I had a feeling that our trade was canceled.

* * *

I stopped on the roof of the Smoking Silverman just in time to catch the end of the show. Cries of witchcraft were being thrown by the crowd and they wouldn't dare throw anything else—not with a strangled guard wrapped in vines to show them what the priestess could do. Luckily for all of them, the Baron's lieutenant had somehow managed to twist her ring-bearing hand behind her and lock his hand over her mouth. I would have expected him to kill her on the spot considering the Baron's stance on marsh-dwellers. The crowd was certainly calling for it to happen.

The Watchmen were ready to take that request. One of the two left standing raised his sword but could barely limp forward with wood spikes digging into his right leg. "Hold her steady while I gut her like a pig!"

The lieutenant angled the priestess away from the guard's approach. "At ease, man. We'll take it from here."

"Not until I see justice for my brother! He died like a dog in the streets because of them!"

The Baron's booming voice cut silence through the crowd. "Father Rhine, see to the Watchman's leg. He'll no doubt think more rationally when he's no longer losing blood." His entire entourage came ahead of him to handle the situation: Two soldiers ushered the crowd further back, a third worked with the lieutenant to secure the Pagan priestess, and two priests approached the Watchmen. One of them knelt close to the trapped guard and raised a hand to pray for him. That man needed a knife more than his last rites but I suppose even the Builder has his limits.

"What a fortunate patrol." Now that he mentioned it, I did notice that Stonebridge was wearing a layer of light armor... Was he really out patrolling the streets with his men? "I suspected some of the savage aggressors were still within The City's walls, but I didn't imagine that I would run into one so quickly. Good job, men."

The Watchman with the injured leg refused help from the priest that approached him. "Why are you arresting that Pagan filth! Your man should have snapped her neck by now!"

"Strategy, my good man." The Baron looked the priestess over like a prized catch. "You don't kill the first burrick you find; you follow it back to its nest so you can kill them all." He laughed despite the air's tension. "And when that burrick can talk, she's interrogated until she tells us where her holdouts are."

The guard wasn't satisfied with that explanation. "All _vermin_ come out of hiding eventually! You don't have to keep one to get the others. _Baron Northcrest_ would have seen her killed on the spot!"

I had to give Stonebridge credit. He was calm when he looked at the Watchman—I thought he would have been seething at least. I wasn't at the right angle to read the guard's face but he wasn't backing down.

After sizing him up, the Baron asked a single question: "What's your name, Watchman?"

The Watchman was thrown off-guard and tried not to stammer. "Blakes... Sir. Jeremy Blakes."

Stonebridge put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. "Thank you, Watchman Blakes, for detaining this enemy of The City. The information we obtain from her will see justice for your brother's death, and the death of everyone else who suffered in that horrible attack. Now. Please let Father Rhine see to your leg so it doesn't get infected. I want you to live to see justice prevail."

Smooth as a marble floor. Baron Stonebridge directed Blakes to the priest who was still waiting to treat him. I was more interested in the priest kneeling over the trapped man. An all too familiar twinge drove my attention to his prayer ritual. He had taken one of those silver hammers out and started waving it while he muttered. There had to be a jewel in that relic because I could see the magic behind the show he was putting on for the crowd: The priest was drawing a glyph in mid-air.

When the glyph was complete, it dropped on the cocoon and split the vines down the middle. The guard was free and the crowd was amazed. I was less impressed, especially when the priest's followup prayer included a variation of the healing glyph I learned from the Keepers. The whole exhibition was being praised as a miracle by the onlookers but it could have just as easily been considered more witchcraft if it came from different hands.

The soldiers were starting to break up the crowd but it was an admittedly difficult task; after all, the show was still going on. The priestess struggled enough to get her mouth free and shouted some very creative words before they could gag her with a cloth. I took the opportunity of everyone else's distraction to catch Baron Stonebridge's eye. We had business to finish, and while this might have seemed too public a place for it, we were both fairly creative men. My eyes found the porch of the Clocktower Bookbinders and once he started in that direction, I made my own way down to meet him.

The lieutenant walked over with the Baron and stood near him to make it look like they were having a private conversation. I let them both know I was there by playing the voice in the shadows.

"Quite a speech you gave that guard."

"There was pain in his eyes that told me his passion was not misplaced." The Baron and his lieutenant had looks in their eyes that told me they knew all too well where the guard's passion was coming from. "The Eye?"

"Ever heard of a marsh-dweller named Yew?"

"I have few of their names but I'll look into it. Where?"

"The Old Quarter, near Taffton. You're looking for a man with the Trickster's third eye on his head, wearing blood crystals as trophies."

Stonebridge took note of every detail. "I had a man injured in that district, but it was reportedly by a madwoman."

"She wasn't mad, she was dead."

He and the lieutenant looked in my direction, but only for a moment.

"I saw her, a father and... his two sons. They should have been dead but they were moving by some Pagan curse."

The Baron finally spoke to his associate. "We need to expand the quarantine zone and refocus some of the troops from the northeast." Then he looked in my direction again. "Thank you. Your pay will be delivered as promised."

"Give Basso his commission but I need something else from you." I hadn't forgotten about my deal with the priestess but the opportunity had changed. "That marsh-dweller you arrested has a sealed book I need."

"I'll see that it gets lost during inventory." I never trusted a man of authority but Baron Stonebridge knew how to return a favor, and frankly, I didn't owe the priestess anything. I'll get the book and keep the Trickster's toys, and the Baron will deal with the remaining marsh-dweller threat. This was the best I was going to do for the Keepers. Things might not have been as back to normal as I wanted them to be but at least I was in control again.


	8. Trousers Before Frocks

**Part 8: Trousers Before Frocks**

If there was one thing I could say I didn't like about being a thief, it would have to be that people thought I could be paid to take anything. For the most part it was true; after all, if the coin wasn't worth it the challenge and whatever I could pick up along the way might make up for the rest. Still, I had my standards, but lately they were being challenged by a particular series of jobs from Basso.

I didn't care to be put in situations like the one I was in: Pushing on the walls of an empty well, staring up through a wooden grate at two vocal dogs while cradling a white rabbit in the crook of my arm.

According to Basso, this rabbit was a special breed that was worth more than the jeweled collar it wore. I needed to get it out of the breeder's garden alive but its own guard dogs were eager to kill us both. The master of the house was also yelling down at them from his bedroom window and it wouldn't be long before he decided to see what all the fuss was about.

I stored my traveling companion in the pouch on my hip, then smashed a flash bomb into the grate above me. The dogs changed their tune when they were blinded and their master finally stopped yelling and started paying attention. When I crawled out of hiding, I knocked one dog in the well and took off running across the yard. A third came barreling out of the house when a door was opened and I raced it through a maze of rabbit hutches. I made it to the stone fence moments ahead of the dog and felt its teeth brush my heel when I flung myself over the wall.

My landing was a little haphazard to keep myself from crushing my cargo. While laying on my back, I checked the rabbit to make sure it was still in good shape.

"You are not worth all this trouble," I told it, then rolled in time to avoid a bolt. The rabbit breeder was quicker than I thought and the dog that came with him was quicker than that. I had to make like a rabbit myself to get away from them.

* * *

The moment I was waiting for was finally here. When I presented the prized rabbit to Basso, he looked a little pinchcocked. "Garrett, I got a special job for you."

"Is the lady still playing hard to get?" I tried not to sound too eager for the answer.

"That lousy frock thought she could string me along—well nobody takes from Basso without giving!" He fumbled with his flask. I could always tell Basso was genuinely upset when he couldn't take a swig with a practiced hand. That made this moment all the more entertaining for me.

"I had her followed, to see what sort of racket she's really running."

"That should have been your first move when anyone other than Comfort showed interest in you."

"Do you want the job or not?" He took another messy swig and I leveled a quiet smirk in his direction.

"That con artist's working her own fencing gig in my territory, Garrett. _My territory!_ I bet she thought she could plug up my business with all her special requests; well, she's gonna learn what happens when you prey upon my, kinder nature."

Basso took a gilded cage from underneath his desk and I eased the rabbit inside. "My informant said she was all over Stonemarket—brokering deals and trying to convince some of my regulars to come to her. She never went home but that's probably because she didn't have anything to stash. She's gonna come for this first thing tomorrow night. I want you to follow her and take her for all she's worth."

Normally I didn't get involved in Basso's personal life but this long con was interfering with our business. "I'll send your regards." I left his office for the night feeling eager for work the next day.

* * *

Con artists were a different kind of thief: They used words and charisma as their shadows. I respected the ones who did it well enough but even the smoothest talkers had a shorter career than the traditional blackhand. All it took was a con that overstayed its welcome. The lady didn't know it but her mark came with a little added security.

I followed her to a rundown townhouse in Grandmauden. Basso must not have been over for tea or he would have known sooner that something was wrong. The lady of the house went upstairs and I let myself in through a sitting room window. While she turned in for the night, I took my time browsing for all the goods she'd conned out of my fence.

It turned out this was going on longer than I thought. I found several of the jewels I stole from the amateurs and other things she may have gotten from Basso, or someone else who thought her plain face was worth all the trouble.

The last thing I reached for was the expensive rabbit in its gilded cage. I was only interested in the collar—the cage was more than I wanted to haul around.

There was a knock on the front door and I ducked into a standing closet on the opposite side of the room. Little did I know the lady of the house was preparing for a late night rendezvous.

Or maybe not. She clung to her gown very modestly when she stopped halfway down the staircase to eye the front door. "Who's there? Jarin, is that you at this hour?"

The second round of knocks sounded heavy and off rhythm. A drunken night call, perhaps, but the muffled grunt on the other side of the door made me strangely uneasy. I gave the rabbit a reassuring pet to stop it from fidgeting in my grip.

"Jarin, you better not be drunk again. I told you to sleep off the Crippled Burrick before you came back here." The lady of the house wasn't being wary enough. She took a lantern off a table at the foot of the stairs and carried it with her to the front door.

If not for the lantern, she might have been able to get the door closed once she saw who it was. The man on the porch knocked her and the door aside when he stumbled in. He wasn't drunk but I had to wonder where he came from. His wet clothes and bloated face told me he had to have drowned in one of the rivers before his corpse walked this far north of Old Quarter.

Basso wouldn't have to worry about what little competition his pinchcock would have offered him. Her screams were unintentionally muffled by the man's arm when he dropped on top of her. He bit into the first arm that flailed at his face and her lantern went rolling across the floor. It cast more of a light on the scene than I wanted to see. I slipped past them both while he was preoccupied by her struggling and eased the front door closed behind me.

* * *

I'd like to think the rabbit appreciated the view from the clock tower as much as I did. At the very least, it was interested in the air that drafted through its new perch and looked a lot more comfortable without its gold collar.

I was studying the collar at my workbench when an old feeling of unease pinched the back of my neck.

"I wondered when you would fill this old clock tower with life again, Child of the Shadows."

The Queen of Beggars called to me from the foot of the stairs. How she got in was a question on the tip of my tongue but observation kept me quiet. She was leaning heavily against the banister before she turned to walk near my bed. Even though I had to come downstairs, it was easy to overtake her and clear a stool so she had a place to sit down.

"You shouldn't use the primal if it takes this much out of you," I finally said, but the Queen's attention went to the box where I kept my spare eyes. It was just within her reach and she helped herself—the one she picked began to glow as soon as two of her fingers touched it.

"You always were a clever adapter, Garrett."

"What do you want?" It seemed fairly clear when I walked away from her that I didn't want to help the Keepers anymore.

"There was a time when all the elements of life that are coming back now were always a part of The City. When they vanished, the people went about their lives as if it had all been a dream. But it was quite the opposite. The City was put to sleep and has been dreaming up until now."

"No. I'm not doing this." I took the glass eye from her and put it back in its box. "Take your cryptic words and primal magic and get out."

"You made a promise to me, Garrett." She looked into my good eye with her dead ones. "You promised me that you would watch over The City."

"That was when I had two eyes to watch it." I turned my back on her and studied the clock's gears. I could hear one or two starting to grind; they needed my attention more than anything else in this city.

"You and I both know that was inevitable. You saw it in a vision."

I frowned but I didn't argue; instead, I crouched over a toolbox near the railing and picked through it for a wrench and oil can. That subtle grinding was bothering my shoulders almost as much as her words but I could only do something about one of them.

"Losing a part of yourself is more than just a physical injury. It wounds the pride and weakens your certainty. But you do not walk this path because you are perfect, Garrett. You walk it because you are true. And now, more than ever, you are the key to the city's future. Baron Northcrest did not wake it gently but it is awake now, and it needs a _true_ Keeper's guidance."

A 'true' Keeper? She didn't trust Costa or the other Keepers to do what was best for The City. "How do you know you can trust me to do what's best for The City?"

"You already have, despite yourself, several times."

By then I was already crawling among the gears but even the ticking and tumbling couldn't drown out her words... or the truth. The City was still in trouble; that was clear from the unexpected house guest that interrupted my last job. But I didn't want to deal with any of it because I might lose more than an eye the next time.

I called up through the noise: "What you're asking me to do is more than pitting myself against a few traps and guards. The marsh-dwellers are more than Gamall."

"You're not fighting the marsh-dwellers, Garrett. Your true enemy is far more dangerous than that."

The Pagan priestess said that Yew wasn't a marsh-dweller but I had a feeling that wasn't what the Queen of Beggars meant.

"There are people with the best intentions that do not recognize when they must set aside the comfort of what they know for the pain of what is right. No human is exempt from this flaw, but a Keeper living outside the rhetoric of their established code of conduct might have a greater chance of recognizing it."

I knew there was no avoiding any of this—I don't even know why I tried. If the Queen of Beggars' sight was anything like mine, she already knew what I was going to go through and wanted me to be prepared. I settled on a wooden beam near one of the largest gears in the clock and looked up at the floorboards of my hideout. "If I do anything more as a Keeper, it's going to be using the Final Glyph to seal the primal again. Even at the cost of my eye. It's better than letting all these old gods and magicians run around."

"That is your choice, but remember an important lesson you learned when all of this began. The path isn't as lonely as you think."

"A lone path isn't a problem for me." She wasn't taking the hint that I wanted to be left alone. I made my way back up through the gears to drive the point home.

"Denial doesn't create truth, Garrett, but when you are ready, reach out to your adopted family. They still care for you, and they will help you again, if you let them."

"I haven't adopted—" I tried to look hostile when I came up but she was gone. My spare eye was sitting on her stool and the glow faded from it gradually.

The Queen of Beggars moved too gingerly to leave that quickly and quietly. When I checked every possible exit, there was no sign that she used any of them. The mystery would've driven me mad if I didn't hear Jenivere leave one of Basso's matchboxes behind.

 _Come get_ y _our reward from our new best friend. -B_

The Baron was finally paying his debt. With that book in hand, I might be able to get the Queen of Beggars off my back.


	9. Brothers for Life

**Part 9: Brothers for Life**

"What is this?" I stared at a sack of coins on Basso's desk. This wasn't what I asked for but he didn't understand the problem.

"What, not enough? Well if you don't want it, I will gladly accept the donation on your behalf."

"I asked the Baron for something very specific. Did he mention that to you?"

"Eh?" Some days it was harder than others to pry Basso's attention away from his money. "Oh, yeah. His associate said the book wasn't with the priestess, whatever that means."

She didn't bring the book with her when she came to meet me? Perhaps her plan was to double-cross me during the deal—that made me even less sorry about her arrest. But if the book wasn't with her, then there was only one other place it could be. I wasn't going there without a good distraction.

From my adopted family.

I sighed to myself as the Queen of Beggars' words came back to haunt me. "Know where I can find Six-Fingers?"

* * *

Six and I hadn't spoken since our last argument but he was the only person I could trust with this task. I might have to convince him of that but at least I didn't have to hunt him down. Basso sent him to work the Shalebridge bear pits: A Throvian import was scheduled to fight a local bruin. A lot of local pride goes into the pot at an event like this and while Basso wasn't foolish enough to steal from the gang that ran the pit, he knew of other opportunities that could be found at such an event.

The bear pits were one of the first bits of entertainment to return to The City after the Gloom. The Stagg brothers—a pair of thugs that survived the Eelbiters' breakup—put together a gang of their own and made sure they had a hand in every animal ring that re-emerged. I heard they did well for themselves but never had an opportunity to look in on their fortune until now.

I came into the pit through a grate that met a beam above the arena. Part of the grate was loose—that and some broken spiderwebs told me someone else came this way recently. Below the beams, the security was active but easily distracted by the action in the ring. A few dogs were fighting a bear to get a rise out of the crowd.

A subtle trail lead me to an intersection in the halls beyond the pit. I paused to listen to the local trainer and his guard talk on the way to their room.

"That Throvian's as good as a rug. I fit hooks on Iron's claws and he is going to tear right through him."

"I hear the Throvian's got gold teeth. Word is the trainer crowns one everytime he wins."

"I'll have the whole mouth as a trophy when we win. Might start doing the same to Iron."

A bear's mouth wasn't the safest place to reach for gold but its teeth would make an interesting prize for any opportunist. I left the intersection knowing exactly where I would find Six.

Not only was Six in the hall outside of the challenger's room but there was also a would-be thief squaring off against him. The amateur wasn't truly dressed for the job—his face was hardly covered enough—but he had to have some skill to make it this far, and his attitude reflected that.

"Clear off or I'll yell for the guard!"

Six's face was covered but I could hear the humor in his voice. "You'd call the guard now? They'll have words for you, too."

"A quick change and I look innocent enough. But you always look like a criminal!"

"Dress of the trade, mate. You'll learn that if you live long enough. Promising to rat out another thief is a good way to end your career. You need a good reputation to get jobs and make the right acquaintances."

"Case in point." By then I was already behind the brat. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard me. "You can call for the guard. We'll make sure they know who to look for when they come."

His tone changed drastically now that he was surrounded. "Come on, don't do this... It's my first real job and I need the coin!"

"It's a bit ambitious, pulling teeth from a bear. But who was here first?"

Six dismissed the argument with a gesture. He always was kinder to the amateurs than me. "Let him have it. I know you didn't come all this way to quell a quarrel. We'll keep watch and have a chat."

"Does your new friend know how to pick locks?"

"Of course I do!" The young thief finally showed some more grit. We let him near the doorway and turned to watch for guards.

Six looked at me more than the hall ahead of us. "Basso send you?"

"No. I need a favor."

"Oh, so you've come hat in hand? Never thought I'd see the hour."

I looked back to see if our young friend was eavesdropping. He was deeply concentrated on his work, but something beyond the click of the lock's tumblers caught my ear: A groan that sounded dreadfully familiar. No one else would have known what it meant but it raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I walked up to the door and pushed the amateur aside so I could look through the lock.

"Hey! You said I could have it!"

I stood up to respond but he was posturing again, as if his skin and bones might intimidate me. He wanted to learn things the fool's way. I side-stepped and let him approach the door. When he turned the knob, I put my arm out to keep him from moving forward with the door's swing.

"Gods among us..." The scene in the room was worse than the sound. The Throvian handler, his two personal guards, two of the arena's guards and an escort were tearing into the corpse of the bruin with what was left of their bare hands, eating through its fur and flesh. The bear was trapped in a small cage and easily overpowered by the ghouls.

The young thief turned pale and leaned on my arm until he remembered himself. At least he had the sense to whisper when he spoke again. "The job is ruined. What am I going to do now?"

"Count your blessings," Six mumbled and pulled the boy out of the way. He loaded a bolt into his crossbow and I reached for my bow to join him. The ghouls noticed us but we stood a chance to take out a few before we'd have to move.

"Hey! What's going on down there!" Two pit guards finally came around to check on the challenger. Eyeing them for a split second was all the time the ghouls needed to close the gap between us and the door. I jumped back and used the nearest locker to climb back up to the rafters. Six followed with a bit of effort. The amateur tried to do the same but he lacked the strength to pull himself up in one move. If Six and I hadn't hauled him up by his shoulders, he would have been the ghouls' next meal.

"Madness... It's all madness," he rambled. "I've got to get out of here!"

"Don't go so fast, mate." Six had a very sly look in his eye. "We saved your life. Life debt's worth its weight in gold. You'll learn that, too, if you care."

"But I don't have any coin. What could you possibly want from me?"

We watched the pit guards run up to the crowd with genuine concern. They were mauled to death for all their good intentions. While the ghouls fixated on their new meal, Six and I lowered the young thief near the doorway so he could retrieve the bear's teeth. It was another lesson he might live to learn: A job wasn't over until it was done.

"If he keeps quiet, he might make it out alive," Six mumbled and kept watch. The space between the rafters and the ceiling was too tight to use our weapons or we might have given the boy a better chance.

I studied the corpses while they fed. They each had their own gory marks but I could almost tell what happened between them. There were bruises on the woman's neck that told me her last job got a little too rough. The others had their throats and arms bitten. That could have been from the bear but most of the bites were too small. It didn't seem likely that a walking corpse could make it this far from Old Quarter without leaving a trail of victims, which meant the woman died and came back in the Throvian's room. This Pagan curse was more powerful than I thought.

"This needs to be stopped."

"If you've got ideas, do share."

"I need to know that I can trust you to keep a good head on your shoulders." I hadn't forgotten what happened when I helped Six rescue Scribe, and neither had he.

"Right, that old song. Look, I'm sorry I threw Lorena at you. I was upset at the thought of losing more of my family."

"That doesn't help them and it doesn't help me." I looked him in the eye. "What's happening now is worse than what that witch was planning to do. I thought the Baron and his army might keep it under control but that's clearly not the case. If you're going to help me you need to be focused."

"Well I will." We watched the crowd quietly for a moment. "And it may mean nothing to you but you are a part of that family I spoke of. Brothers for life, I meant that. Just a shit one, you are."

I couldn't say why that made me smirk; maybe the idea that I got on Six's nerves was a badge of honor to me.

The young thief had the tools to take out the bear's golden teeth. At least he was prepared for that part of the job. We hauled him back up to safety but only after he handed the teeth to Six to pay off his debt. He'd live to learn that there would be other jobs.

* * *

I told Six-Fingers everything I needed him to know about the primal. He took it well, but I would expect no less from someone who was once cursed to walk as a Gloomer. "So that's what you used to fix your hands, is it? Fair trade, but I don't see why you want to get rid of it. Seems it could do a lot of good for a lot of people."

"It's not what the primal can do, it's what people can do with it." We stopped in a thin alley and I used an old door to show him a glyph in action. He couldn't see the lines that I drew with my fingertips but opening the door to a cavern was proof enough.

"Oh... What a game changer that would be, eh? Tell me how I can get my own of _that_."

"Getting _that_ is what killed me before." I lead him through to the ruined streets below The City. For safety's sake, I made sure the door was already connected to the clock tower. There was no telling how this would go down and a quick escape might be necessary.

Our plan was simple: Six would use a modified bolt to distract the trees while I made my way to the cottage. Each bolt made a high-pitched noise when they struck their target—a way of misdirecting someone's attention. Six stayed hidden in a leaning tower near the edge of the clearing and fired each shot before a tree beast got too close to the source of the last noise. The group standing outside the cottage was the last to investigate but once they turned to move, I rushed across the mossy field and immediately worked on the door's lock.

It was a bit trickier than I expected an old lock to be but it only added a few seconds to my task. As long as Six kept the trees away, I could make up that time during my search.

The interior was made of only one room and most of it was caved in. The marsh-dweller priestess kept her belongings in the clearest corner. I searched the pelts she used for a bed, a few satchels and some loose floorboards. No book. Was she clever enough to hide it in case I tried to double-cross her? It didn't seem likely; then again, I was sneaking around a field of walking trees. I needed to keep an open mind.

I could hear some of the trees returning to their posts. It was time to go. I gave one last look around in case I missed any good hiding places, then eased the door open to assess the field.

A tree was already outside the door preparing to root itself. It saw me through a pair of sunken eyes that traveled across its trunk.

I slammed the door and moved back. Wooden spears came through the planks and ripped the old door off its hinges. The only direction for me to go was up: I clambered through the collapsed ceiling and stood on what was left of the roof.

Now I was out in the open and the rest of the grove could see me. They made the only kind of roar I would expect a tree to make: Deep and cavern-shaking.

I leapt for the moss and stopped rolling just in time to see Six-Fingers shoot one of the trees with a fire canister. As it burst into flames, the cry that rang out from the grove was worse than any wail of grief I could imagine.

I ran for the ruins and Six followed me as soon as he cleared the tower. Most of the tree beasts were too slow or big to keep up but there were enough loping after us to keep us sprinting as fast as our legs would go. Luckily for us that door we came through was primed and ready. I threw it open and rushed into the clock tower.

"The hell, man!" Six was banging on air when I turned and looked at him. He was still on the other side of the door— _because I forgot to draw the Glyph of Passage on him._ I moved to reach for him but he dashed out of my sight when a tree beast caught up to him. A whole forest passed by the door and one of them crashed into it—the door in the ruins slammed so hard a crack appeared in the tower's front door.

" _No!_ "

I tried more times than I could count to open the door again but the tree must have broken it.

 _What have I done!_

I tried to focus the door glyph on Six directly but it wasn't working. All I could think about was that vision I saw of Addi's future and that kept me trying.

 _But he was supposed to live well after what happened at Cragscleft. How could he be dead now?_

I cursed the Queen of Beggars and the primal for putting me in this position. If it was the last thing I did, I was going to find that book and put a stop to all of this.

* * *

I kept trying until I felt strangely exhausted, all the way down through my bones. I had never used the primal for so long and it felt like I was going to black out, but I had to give it one more try. If there was even a chance that he escaped that mob, I couldn't leave Six to die below The City.

I dropped to my knees after I drew the glyph but when I looked up it was still there. The others had faded almost as soon as I finished them. Seeing that gave me enough energy to climb to my feet and push through the door.

I came into what looked like an old barracks. There were few beds left in the bunkhouse and I could see a figure laying in one of them.

"Six?"

The figure groaned and a cold shock raced down my spine. I eased the door closed before I crept up to it. My fingers felt numb but I wrapped them around the handle of the claw just in case I had to do what needed to be done.

"Shhh." Six dragged a bloodied finger up to his pale mouth and signaled for me to keep quiet. "A few still hunting for my head," he mumbled. I staggered out of a combination of fatigue and relief.

One of his legs was torn open and bleeding. He stemmed the flow with what he had but lost too much to go any further.

I needed to draw the healing glyph to help him but I knew I'd pass out if I did. If there were any other tree beasts thumping around and they heard me fall, we'd both be dead. Well, I had already been on a few trips to the Maw and I wasn't afraid to take another. I pulled a sheet off another bed and used it to cover Six so he wouldn't stand out. After I drew the glyph on the wall above him, I barely had time to pivot before I collapsed a small distance from his bed.


	10. The Ritual of the Root

**Part 10: The Ritual of the Root**

I wasn't in the Maw when I opened my eyes but I felt I lot better. Six must have woken up and moved me to his bed. He was squatting over a cold tin of rations when he noticed my eyes were on him. "Oi. Got an extra tin if you're hungry."

Except for a few light scars, his leg looked much better than it did when I found him. I caught the tin when it was tossed to me and sat up to open it. "The trees?"

"All clear, far as I can tell. Not that it matters since we'll be using your hocus pocus to get out of here, yeah?"

I didn't say anything since he already knew the answer.

"I was near death and it fixed me. You _were_ dead and it brought you back."

I knew where his thoughtfulness was headed. "Should Scribe be worried about your obsession with a dead woman?"

He smiled bitterly. "It's not like that at all. Rena, she—" He laughed bitterly, too. "Always the big sister type, she were. I always felt I owed her my life since we were young. Never got to give proper thanks for all she did." His bitter smile left him. "When we saw what they did to her at that... carnival... I thought it was my last chance to make it right. Turned out to be yours, didn't it? All this witch work just makes me wonder, you know."

I knew exactly how he felt. Lorena was an assassin but she didn't take life for granted. She was the one who introduced me to Maurus—by dragging my stubborn body to him one year when I was ill. Seeing what was left of her dancing in that circus construct, I knew I had to do something. It wasn't just what I owed her, but I wasn't going to dwell on any other reason for killing Gib.

"When I came back from the dead, I had a body to return to. Your leg healed because it wasn't torn off. Lorena—is gone. She deserves to rest."

"Death's the only time working men and women like us get to, eh?" Six dusted off his hands and stood up. "One of these days, I want to know about this Maw you've been to. I want to know if there's anything I should be worried about."

"I still wonder that even after I've been there." I let Six out into the bookstore below his flat and opened the clock tower for myself. It was good to know that dealing with the primal wouldn't drive him mad, but his ideas about Lorena told me I better be careful about involving him in anymore of this scheme.

* * *

The priestess was the only person I could ask about the book but she was nearly inaccessible in Shoalsgate prison. The entire bridge had been converted into a one-way destination for any enemies of the Stonebridge era. A few escape artists—the professionals who were paid to break people out of prison—were impaled to the outer walls for their efforts. I pride myself in having the skills of an escape artist, but those odds never sounded good to me.

The bottom of the bridge seemed the least conspicuous option, though there were still patrols to watch for. Guards walked along the wide beams of the underbelly and a few boats cruised the river with spotlights that lit up the shadows. I crawled upside-down in between patrols and stopped when I found a beam that wasn't as frequently walked. The path to the nearest door was too crowded but I spied a garbage chute where bits of food rained down to the water.

The chute was ridged and rusted enough to give me a firm grip every few feet. It was a long climb up, and every once in a while I had to stop while raw ingredients rained over me. Not the finest moment in my history of breaking and entering, but at least no one would see it coming.

I waited until the cook had his back to me before I slipped out of the garbage chute. He was too busy singing an aria to hear me brush the garbage from my cloak into the cauldron of stew he was preparing.

Most of the guards were out on patrol but there were a few loitering in the barracks. I tread lightly while I took their valuables and looked for a log of the prisoners. Fortunately for me, the priestess was enough of an attraction that it wasn't hard to overhear gossip about her.

"I'm telling you, she's a Wood Nymph. Someone that dark and wild has to be."

"And I'm telling you, you're an idiot. Work a dock patrol sometime; you'll see people from all sorts of places delivering goods. She's human like the rest of us."

"But you heard what she did in the square! And the Baron wouldn't keep her in Poshtoll's Tower if she weren't inhuman and dangerous."

"Right. Well it's your turn to deliver food to the inhuman danger. Mind that she doesn't steal your soul when you do."

I followed the ignorant guard while he carried a tray to the tower. There were a few checkpoints along the way that forced me to take a detour through the ducts, but the real problem came when he reached the last hallway to the tower's door. It was too open and well lit with a guard at each end. My only option was to work my way along the outer wall of the tower and hope none of the passing boats looked up.

The wind certainly wasn't helping—it billowed my cloak like a signal flag. I worked quickly but carefully using the claw and my grappling hook to keep up with the delivery. We reached the top of the tower at nearly the same time and I waited until he left before I looked through the arrowslit that passed for a window.

There wasn't enough light to see the priestess but I knew she had to be there. "Don't eat the soup. It has a few extra ingredients."

"I knew you come, sneaksie man." Her voice was low and prideful. "How you like your city? The dead make old friends into new enemies."

"I don't need anymore enemies." It would have been foolish of me to come this far without something to make the conversation go smoother. I took the mummified paw out of my pouch and held it up to the window. "You said you need this to deal with Yew? Well I need that book to end the primal."

" _The Jacknall!_ " She reached forward but I pulled it back. The finger that wore her red ring was twisted and swollen from having the item taken.

"The book, priestess. Where is it?"

Her fingers tapped on the base of the window. "Ask your Baron. Ask him where he took my ring. All the things I have, he take, and I will have them returned to me."

I shook my head, even though she had to be telling the truth. "The Baron said you didn't have it on you." Her laughter only made me feel more foolish.

"You trust his word more than you trust me? Why? Because he is a cityhead like you, manfool? Sneaksie man should know better than I that trust is not for the cityhead."

Had I given too much of my trust to the Baron? The priestess might have been lying to me, but I knew I got a little too comfortable with Stonebridge because he seemed better than Northcrest. That was a fool's gamble. If he kept the book for himself, then it was a gamble that I lost.

The priestess stretched out her hand again. "Yew has The Eye. He will no part with it easy. Give me the Jacknall's Paw, and I make sure he and The Eye part ways."

"And how do I know that I can trust you to do that?" The thought of the Baron's betrayal was thinning out my reserve.

"Look at me." Her face came closer to the slit and I could see the swollen damage from her interrogation. She was a strong woman, that much I could tell, and the Baron was still a man of war.

"Look with your true eye. Leave me here if you do no like what you see."

The fact that she was willing to let me look might have been reason enough for some. With the primal on the line, I had to be sure. I studied her face until it looked aged and battered. Her hair was long in some places and torn out by the roots in others. She could never escape the prison on her own and would never talk in the interrogations. Her future was hardly my concern, but it gave me a starting point for something else I had in mind. I let go of all my senses and looked out across The City.

Hordes of ghouls were pushing against the portcullis that was the last line of defense for The Bridge. A few refugees that hid inside the prison were throwing themselves in the river while the last of the Baron's army prepared to make their final stand. Everything else beyond Shoalsgate was a ruined, smoking landscape with gutted buildings and fallen barricades. The City wouldn't survive Yew's plans and it wouldn't die quickly, either. If I ignored that warning, then I would be responsible for all of it.

Looking at The City's future might not have been the best idea. I felt that deep fatigue again and almost lost my grip when I came back to my senses. It took me a few moments to regain my bearings but what I saw helped me make my decision. I held the paw forward and made her understand that I wouldn't be fooled again.

"I'll look into the Baron, but if you try to make a jacknall out of me, I will come for you, priestess."

"Galingale," she said as she pulled the paw into the darkness. "That be I name."

I barely made a sound to acknowledge it while I stooped to lower myself down.

"Where you go, sneaksie man? Our business no be done."

I stood up again and peered at the darkness.

"You have pure water. Give to me."

The only water I had on me came in the canisters that explode on impact. After a blink, I handed one to her so she could figure that out for herself.

She managed to break it open and her cell filled with a dull glow that attracted my attention. The water turned into liquid light that floated above three symbols the priestess scrawled in the dirt surrounding the paw. One of those symbols was shaped like a drop of water. The blue light sank into the gaps of the drop and made it look alive.

"You have moss in your quiver? Show to me."

I wasn't going to ask how she knew that. I reached back and stirred a serrated arrow in the quiver until it was coated with moss, then held it out. Galingale snatched my arrow into the darkness and I leaned forward to try and see what she was doing. After a moment, a green light grew out of nothingness. The moss from my arrow turned to light and filled the gaps of a leaf-shaped symbol.

There was one more drawing to fill and it didn't make sense to me until she spoke again. "Your hand, sneaksie man." The priestess reached for it but I moved it away. "What you think I want, your finger?"

"You already have one mummified hand. Why do you need my good one?"

"It is not your hand I need, it is blood. Blood of your enemy works best."

I started to build a frown—then a spotlight landed on my back. A patrolling boat finally looked up at the right moment. One guard signaled the alarm while the other fired at me with piss-poor aim. His bolt struck the wall far below me.

Sirens rang out and the priestess had to yell to be heard. "We are no friends, sneaksie man, but we have a deal! Give me your hand!"

I hadn't decided yet but the choice was made for me. A harpoon launched from another boat and I lost my footing when I leaned out of its way. My hand caught on the window and that was all Galingale needed.

"Ah!" I slipped again when she cut my finger but I managed to get a grip around the harpoon with my other hand. The trail of blood that leaked from the cut was already glowing while I watched it drift up through the window to join her ritual.

"FIRE!" Another harpoon launched at the wall and I dropped out of its way, which left me dangling on the end of the rope around my waist. Just as I planted my feet on the wall to steady myself, an explosion rained stone all around me.

I felt the rope slack and knew I was falling. The dust and rocks made it impossible to see which way to turn—then a green flash broke through the cloud. I had no choice but to latch on.

The vine was sturdy enough to stop me from falling. When the dust cleared a bit, I could see it was coming from a much wider hole where the thin window used to be. More vines reached out of the darkness and Galingale crawled onto the platform they made. The fingers of the Jacknall's Paw were now outstretched and what's more, I could feel the primal energy radiating from it. Looks truly were deceiving with that relic.

Once the guards picked their jaws up, they continued to fire bolts and harpoons at us. The priestess looked at them and the paw pointed in their direction. Both boats were torn in half when roots stretched out of the river and broke through their hulls.

"Sneaksie man."

I looked up and saw the priestess floating away on the wind. From her hair to her toes, her body gradually broke apart into vibrant leaves that whisked away in the night sky.

"Find me in the Old Town in two days. Remember where you gave your eye."

The vines and roots wilted and I was dropped into the water. By the time I resurfaced, all signs of the priestess had vanished into thin air. With the guards in an uproar, it was time for me to do the same.


	11. Trust Issues

**Part 11: Trust Issues**

I thought I would keep my head down and rest for the next few days though it was more for Basso's sake than my own. No doubt when Baron Stonebridge caught wind of my involvement in Galingale's escape, he would come after me by any means. I could never convince Basso to move his office—it was too close to the booze and black market goods he loved. It was pointless to hide him, anyway. His style of business always made him easy to find.

I knew sooner or later I would have to confront the Baron and that later came sooner than I expected. He sent for me the morning after the breakout. I didn't answer right away but at dusk, I tracked down Basso at one of the nearby markets for information.

I waited for him to wander by a dark alley and reached into his basket for a loaf of bread.

"THIE—" He stopped short when he saw me and coughed to cover up his mistake.

"I hope that was some sort of stutter and not a cry for the Watch."

Basso looked around to make sure no one took him seriously before he ducked into the shadows to talk. "What's goin' on with you? Did you break that Pagan witch out of The Bridge?"

"It was for a good reason."

"Treason always is, isn't it?" He spared another glance out into the open. "Well I told the Baron's associate that I'd deliver his message 'if' you stopped by, but for your sake you better leave the messages to the magpies. He may have eyes on my office."

"Or on you." I handed over a silver pocket watch from a man I sapped while hunting for him. "You were being followed."

"Dammit." Basso appraised the watch before he hid it away. "There goes that income."

"This is just between me and the Baron. He may still commission you for a lower quality thief some day." I smirked a little, then got to the point of my visit. "I need to know where the Baron may be keeping any relics he's confiscated. His manor seems a bit too obvious; there has to be somewhere else he's holding things he really doesn't want the people to have."

Basso stared thoughtfully at the bread in my hand. "I did hear that his men took a bunch of art—sculptures and carvings—from the quarantine zones and any Watchman that tried to pocket someone's abandoned valuables. A quarantine's as good a time as any to steal from the rich. You'd know that better than me." He rubbed his jowl to jog his memory. "As for where it all might be? There's an abandoned museum in North Auldale that has a suspicious amount of hammerheads visiting the property. All of the exhibits were taken out of there years ago, so I can only imagine that something might have been stored there recently."

I put his bread back in the basket. "Next time a thief steals from you, Basso, don't call for the guard. Call for me."

"Yeah-yeah. Slip of the tongue, really. Now get outta here before they send me another friend."

I was already on my way.

* * *

I knew the museum Basso was talking about. It used to house a lot of antiques from an ancient city below The City but after a thief disproved its security system and took a lot of valuable pieces, it couldn't keep any business. The whole event was before my time or I would have been glad to take the credit for shutting it down.

There were soldiers patrolling its outer gates in pairs. Their pattern was predictable as usual and it didn't feel like a challenge getting past them. I slipped in through a side door the guards weren't passing so often.

I felt odd when I crossed the doorway—like my attention was being pulled in every possible direction. This had to be where the Baron was keeping all the primal artifacts he confiscated. I wouldn't be able to tell which one was the book but I certainly had an opportunity to do some shopping.

The hallways were well lit but that didn't seem to be a problem for me. There were no guards inside—either that or they were doing a good job of hiding. Mechanical cameras were around every corner but they were primitive, and I had enough water canisters for each of their candles. I expected a lot better security than this from Stonebridge but I hadn't gotten to the collections yet.

I looked over a balcony into the first display room I found. Most of the artifacts were uninteresting but there were a few that itched my senses.

With so many primal relics in the building, I was having a hard time keeping my normal senses focused. I almost missed the sound of a curator approaching the balcony. I lowered myself to the show room before he caught sight of me.

"Good evening, Master Thief."

The Baron was waiting for me near the showroom doors—had I stumbled into a trap he set for me? I backed up to the nearest wall but kept my eyes searching every direction for a way out.

Stonebridge held up his hands and approached me. "I don't want to hurt you, thief. I just want to know why."

"Good question. Why did you lie to me about the book?" I backed along the wall until the hairs on the back of my neck told me there was someone behind me. The lieutenant stepped out of a corner that was close to me and forced me away from the wall. I started to cross the open floor but as soon as I came center, a twinge in my right eye nearly knocked me off-balance.

I held my right eye and my left was almost too blurry to see the circular pattern that lit up around me. What I thought was just a pattern of decorative symbols turned out to be a barrier in the middle of the floor. Now I was in the real trap—I stretched a hand beyond it and pain raced from my fingers to my shoulder.

Baron Stonebridge thought he might try to talk some sense into me. "I am sorry that I lied to you about the book. I couldn't risk it falling into the hands of whoever your client might be."

"It wasn't for a client, it was for me."

That took him by surprise. "What for?"

Under the circumstances, I wasn't feeling too generous with information. "It doesn't matter. You owed me, and you went back on your word."

The lieutenant barked, "That's no reason to switch sides! Don't you realize what you've done?"

I was through talking it out. Most of my attention went to the pattern around me. The symbols were written in a different style but they looked like the glyphs the Keepers used. That made me wonder if I could manipulate them in the same way.

"This curse is getting out of hand." I heard a strain of desperation beneath the calm in the Baron's voice. "That priestess could have helped us stop it."

"Under threat of torture?" I looked at him and waved my hand in front of the barrier to test its reaction time. "Lying to others is one thing but lying to yourself is a dangerous habit."

"Don't be stubborn!" The lieutenant barked again but Stonebridge raised his hand to keep things civil.

"Considering our history, Master Thief, I know we have the same intentions. We both want to keep The City and its people from being destroyed. But we have to work together on this! We have to remain on the same page."

We stood toe to toe on opposite sides of the barrier. I was ready to make my move but I had a few words for him first. "If you really want to protect this city—and not just keep the primal for yourself—you'll use what's in that book to shut it down for good."

He started to say more but his lieutenant approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. Good; I needed them together. They communicated with their eyes and I took that opportunity to act. I knelt down and pinched the symbol that marked the start of the barrier's pattern. It hurt but I grit through it and pulled the whole pattern off the floor.

The Baron and the lieutenant were fixated on the hand that held the pattern like a draping cloth. Despite the pain, I held onto it because I had another idea in mind: I whipped it along the surface of the floor and aimed for their feet.

"Shit!" The lieutenant jumped back in time to avoid it when the pattern reformed around Baron Stonebridge. It would have captured them both but I had a plan B. He tried to jump me and I lifted my left arm to block his grip. The lieutenant didn't see my right hand go for a flash bomb and I smashed it into his face before he knew what happened. Then my leg swept him the rest of the way to the floor where I knocked his head for good measure.

"Wait, Master Thief!"

I spared Stonebridge a glance on my way past him. For what it was worth he looked genuinely hurt by my actions; like a father whose son refused to take on the family business. Being caught in a trap didn't help me see things his way but I kept that look in mind. While he made his plea, I threw a rope to the balcony and worked my way up.

"You are the key to all of this! I need you with me!"

"Should have thought of that before you lied to me." I heard footsteps and reached up in time to pull a guard over the edge. It looked like he was preparing to cut the rope out from under me.

"If I thought I could have trusted you with the truth, I would have. Trust is something we _all_ have to earn, Master Thief. Please hear my side of things before you decide I'm not worthy of yours."

I stared down at him while I pulled up my rope. I didn't have time to look as deeply into his future as I would have liked, and what I saw didn't make enough sense to be useful. The call of shouting guards told me it was time to leave.

I had to leave empty-handed and it was a sore feeling, but the building was flooding with guards and there were too few shadows to see my way around discreetly. I had a lot to think about after that encounter with the Baron but I also had an appointment to keep. It was time to rest and prepare for that.


	12. Two Birds

**Part 12: Two Birds**

I would have preferred to go this alone but I didn't trust Galingale. That, and I felt Six needed a bit more of a cautionary tale to cure him of any thoughts about using the primal. I sent for him to meet me at the edge of the Old Quarter ruins, well beyond the quarantine zone. There were few ruins left above ground that marked where The City began but the ones that remained were fragile and long-lived.

The alley where we met was marked by a trail of bodies by the time I got there. They had been dead before their heads were caved in and I noticed their clothes were fairly expensive, though they were missing a few accessories: Jewelry, watches and purses. Now I knew what Six had been up to while he was waiting for me and I couldn't condemn him for the idea. I had already taken a few valuables from some roaming corpses that weren't very attentive.

He was stooped over two more bodies when I came into the alley.

"Looks like you've got all but the Baron's fortune in hand." I almost smiled at how quickly he aimed his crossbow when he heard me speak. He lowered it right after and went back to lining his pockets.

"I'm doing the toppers a service. They're put out of their misery and I'm paid for my troubles. Everyone's a winner."

"Come on." I lead him to a part of the ruins where a manor house once stood. All that remained was a fallen sign and a brick pillar leaning in the middle of the foundation. I recognized the streets that lead to it from that memory Costa forced me to live through. Too bad the vision didn't say anything about how crowded it might be.

We hid behind a crumbled wall across the street. There were walking corpses everywhere and some were marsh-dwellers. It was hard to tell how they died but their flesh was falling away as if they'd been dead for weeks, or even months. If Yew had started killing the marsh-dwellers that early, then it didn't sit well for The City.

I directed Six's attention to the open doors of a root cellar on the opposite side of the foundation.

"Looks like the source of all our troubles," he muttered. "You sure this is where we need to be?" I nodded quietly because I didn't want a conversation to attract the crowd. Then I gave that leaning pillar a second look. It looked like a chimney at first but it was actually the shaft of a dumbwaiter. There was no rope or cart that I could see and the door had fallen away a long time ago. That was our way down.

I tapped Six and we sprinted for the shaft. Naturally, our movements attracted the attention of every ghoul in the area but there was no cover between us and our goal. I went down feet-first and didn't have far to go before I landed on the broken cart. Six came down after me but had the sense to use his hands and feet on the walls to stop himself from landing on my head.

The top of the cart was concave but there was something below it that kept it from being stomped down. I used the spear of the claw to wrench a corner up so I could assess the clutter.

"We got a friend!" The panic in Six's voice drew my attention to a scraping sound above us. One of the dead marsh-dwellers managed to fall head-first into the chute. It was stuck at an odd angle but each time it struggled, it gained a few inches of progress.

I kept prying at the cart and repositioning myself to kick the debris through the doorway beyond. The ghoul kept squirming and inching its way closer to us.

"Take your time; it's not like you're in danger, are you?"

"Your mouth isn't helping!" The corpse was well within reach of Six and I could only get one leg through the cart. He couldn't wait much longer for the way to be cleared.

"Brace yourself!"

I stiffened up before he touched down on my shoulders. The weight and sound of his struggle was all I had to go on but I couldn't look up. I kept digging and pulling until I could get my other leg through. Now I had more stability to deal with the weight pressing down on me.

"Lean back!" There wasn't much room in the shaft for a draw but my arrow didn't need to travel far. I tagged the ghoul in the bridge of its nose, then Six grabbed the arrow and forced it further into its head. That took care of our immediate threat but the noise attracted others. We could see limbs fumbling past the hole above us and knew it wouldn't be long before something else fell in.

I worked a little harder to squeeze out the shaft and made room for Six to follow. We pushed as much trash as we could back through the doorway and tipped an old bookshelf that was standing near the chute.

"Don't wager you brought me all the way here for a one-way trip." Six had the sense to whisper but I preferred he didn't talk at all. "So what are we about?"

"We need to steal relics from two people who'll be fighting. Neither one's going to like it if they see _or hear_ us coming, so keep that in mind." We both had a start when we turned around: A tree beast was laying on the floor with its sharp fingers reaching towards us.

We didn't breathe until we were sure the beast was dead. Its face was contorted in the agony of its final moments and its bark was withered and chipping away, much like the skin of the marsh-dwellers I saw before. The termites streaming down from its eye sockets attracted me the most. I reached for the hand that stretched out to us and when I brushed it, the beast collapsed into a spreading pile of dried bark, rotten wood and termites.

* * *

The door to the office was broken but the hallway beyond looked clear. Now that we had more elbow room, we kept our weapons in hand while we moved further in. The man-made hallway met with a rocky incline where old lanterns still hung from rusted hooks. They had their wicks revived but to our advantage, no one was around to see us creep by.

The incline stopped in a cave where a dull campfire was running out of flames. The nitre on the walls was very familiar to me: This was where they left me when they took my eye. I couldn't see it at the time but there was an opening on the other side of the room. Another rotting tree beast was laying near the opening and the wooden gate had been thrashed from its frame.

There wasn't much hallway beyond the opening—the earth bottomed out into a cavern of collapsed ruins. Its bowl shape made the sounds of conflict echo clearly. Galingale was trying to murder Yew with her words as much as anything else she brought with her. I couldn't see either of them but the rumbling in the cavern told me we were in the right place.

Six kept an eye on the cavern entrance while I abseiled the cliff face. I needed to see where our targets were before I could plan our next move.

Halfway down, I was close enough to see a trail of brambles and thorns that pushed through the rocks and ruins. A few ghouls were tangled in the mess and tree beasts were rotting where they fell. I followed the path with my eyes and found the priestess and necromancer dodging each other on opposite sides of an old well. Galingale used brambles to keep Yew at a distance and when he touched the well's wooden beam, it molded over and crumbled into sawdust.

That explained why the trees and marsh-dwellers looked so decayed and why the priestess was playing keep-away. I couldn't see where Yew kept The Eye but I knew he had it with him. The relic called out to me the moment it knew I was there. " _Come for a reunion with your eye, foolish man? It has served me well these past months._ "

Its voice was in my head but that didn't make me feel better about my chances. How was I going to take it quietly if it knew I was there?

" _We are bound by flesh now, thief. Come. Reclaim your flesh so we may do great works together._ "

I started to climb back up before I noticed Six running down the wall on his own rope. Moments later I could tell why: A wave of walking bodies came pouring over the ledge. They didn't care that it was a long drop—they were only interested in the fact that he'd gone over it.

When Six reached my level I grabbed onto him and kicked us away from each other. We swung wide, letting the ghouls pour past us into the stones below. Many died on impact but others continued to struggle with broken limbs.

I looked to the old well but Galingale and Yew were gone. I couldn't spare a moment more to search for them—more ghouls were coming down and I was swinging back in their direction. I gripped my rope and kicked off the wall so my swing arced away from them. Six was hooked onto a rough surface on the other side and I took hold of his free hand when I met him.

* * *

We had to leave our ropes behind to drop the last few meters to the bottom. That was going to make it tricky to come back up but we couldn't worry about that now. The ghouls that fell after us were surviving a lot better than the first wave and we had to dodge around crumbled buildings to lose them. The large brambles made the maze even harder to navigate. At least I could tell the Pagan relics were still in the area, but I couldn't hear anything to tell me where.

We ducked behind a stone hut and finally lost our followers. If The Eye was so eager to be used, I wondered if it wouldn't mind telling me where it was. "It'll be hard to use you if I can't find you. Which way should I go?"

" _The way that puts you at a safe distance from the hands reaching towards you_."

I ducked sideways to avoid the grasp of a ghoul caught in vines on top of the hut. Six used the stock of his crossbow to crack its head open.

"Talking to yourself now, are you?"

"No," I said and left it at that. "Watch my back." I took a deep breath and sighed away my senses to pinpoint The Eye's location.

* * *

The primal lead us to a building that stood out from most of the ruins. The tall structure was built into the wall of the cavern but its stones were tilted. It wasn't as sturdy as it used to be and the vines climbing along its cracks weren't helping.

Inside painted an even clearer picture of inevitable collapse. Bricks and boards came down recently and others shifted nearly every time we breathed. I started to enter cautiously because I knew it was where we needed to go, but Six hesitated despite the crowd of corpses that were closing in on us.

"You can't be serious. We're going to die in there!"

I wasn't trying to put his life in danger but we came too far and I needed him to stay focused. "We can't wait for the building to collapse with them in it, now gather your guts and come on!" If either of us were going to make it out of this alive, we couldn't think about anything but our actions.

We went hand-over-hand up the wall of a crumbling staircase. The dead were gathering in the bottom of the tower but they couldn't follow. I heard Yew calling for Galingale on a higher level.

"See them gifts of the Maw, priestess. Sees them overcome life in the only way. Death bringsies us closer to them fertile fields."

We found him walking a long hallway with doors on either side. The Eye was dangling from the left shoulder of his pelt like one of his crystal trophies.

" _Nothing worth having is ever simple, thief, and neither is the path to me. Let us see if you can earn the right to claim me._ "

Once again, the priestess showed her aversion to the element of surprise. "You wish to see the Maw? Cut your throat and be done!" Her words sped Yew's steps to a doorway not far ahead. When he looked in, she caught him in the side of the face with a stone but that only staggered him. Then a grasp of vines snared him from the doorway on the other side of the hall. They were drawing him away from the priestess even though each vine was dying just by touching him.

The building shook for a tense moment. With each vine dying at the touch, more were needed to keep Yew at a distance. More vines meant less time before the building would collapse. I nudged Six and let him know which one was his target.

"Get the mummified hand from the priestess. I'm going after the necromancer."

He wasn't going to argue. "Priestess sounds like a better lot, but how are you getting close to a bloke who can rot you with a touch?"

I watched the stones fall away from a wall near us and that gave me an idea. We split up and disappeared from each other's view while we closed in on our targets.

Yew struggled in the mess of vines that kept him occupied. I ducked into the room near him and picked a few bricks and pebbles from the wall that separated us. The mortar and stones were brittle enough to make a hole and I kept shifting them until I could see through.

" _I see you, foolish man."_ My eye was staring back at me through the pelts draped over Yew's shoulder. I swallowed the bitterness that curdled my expression and reached through the hole to take it.

Yew spun with a speed I didn't expect and latched onto my wrist. This old man, with all the appearance of frailty, showed off unnatural strength by yanking me into the wall between us. I lost some wind and he did it again before I could recover. One more pull and I broke through the brittle stones. Then I was up against a wall with his hand on my throat. I already lost my breath and his grip wasn't helping me get it back.

Panic crept up from the back of my mind when I saw the leather peeling away from my wristguard. Within moments it would rot away and my skin would be next. The Eye didn't hesitate to use that point to motivate me. " _You lost your hands once, foolish man. Don't lose them again. My power is just within reach._ "

I forced my free hand to stretch those last inches to the Eye and touched it just as the cloth crumbled away from my neck.

Stillness. All of the shaking stones, struggling movements and rumbling sounds stopped. Malice was frozen on Yew's face and beyond him, I could see Galingale turning too late to stop Six-Fingers from moving away with the Jacknall's Paw. Did I do this? I wanted everything to stop but this was a bit too literal.

" _The power to rule the very elements of life. A tempting treasure, indeed._ "

I slid out of Yew's grasp, but only after did I realize I had actually slipped through his fingers. I couldn't take my eyes off my arms and legs while I moved around him. There was a black mist pouring out of every inch of me: An airy shadow that disguised my movements. A thief wouldn't need to find shadows if he was one. He certainly wouldn't need to rush if he could stop time.

" _How quickly the foolish man discarded his opportunity when first we met. Do you taste what my powers can do for you? There would be no contest to your skill. No challenge to your goal._ "

I waved my arm through Yew's body and plucked a blood crystal from his pelt. Having no obstacles or equals was very tempting; The Eye was certainly preying on my desire to remain the greatest thief The City has ever known. But the jewel didn't realize something about me: I hated the primal and everything it put me through.

"I already have no contenders for my title, and a life without challenge isn't a life I want to live." I stared The Eye in its stolen gaze. "Get rid of Yew's curse. Put the dead back to rest."

" _The curse ended when you took possession of me, foolish man. All that is left is to escape with your challenged life._ "

All at once the world was alive again and I was no longer shrouded in mist. Yew stumbled into the wall where he had me pinned and that was the last bit of stress it could take. The entire front of the building collapsed in a loud rumble, taking parts of each floor with it. I stepped away from the crack that was forming beneath my feet but before I could clear the room, Yew's hand took hold of my ankle and yanked my leg out from under me.

Action without thought was all that saved me from falling with him. My free hand took hold of the claw and hooked it into the floor in one swing. I thought my arm was going to pop out of its socket with the weight of the necromancer clinging to my leg. He couldn't do much more harm to me without his powers but he had his eyes on the relic in my other hand. His struggle to climb my leg and reach for it was endangering us both. I kicked my free leg at him but the swing was only making it worse.

"Hand up!" Six-Fingers leaned over the edge and reached for me. I let him take hold of the wrist of the hand that held The Eye, then used his added stability to stomp down on Yew's chest. His frailty was proven by how easy it was to knock him away. Yew lost his grip and joined the stones at the bottom of the cavern. He was buried within moments.

I was grateful for Six's intervention but I had a pressing question in mind. "The Paw?"

"Secure!" He braced himself and lifted me up by the arm, not knowing that Galingale was seething from the doorway behind him.

"We had a deal, sneaksie manfool!" She saw The Eye being raised and made the mistake I thought she might. Her greed kicked in and she reached for it, tripping forward when the building reminded us that it was falling apart. I kicked my legs out and got a hold of her before she slipped past me.

This wasn't a rescue, it was an ultimatum. I called down to the priestess, "The hand was a loan, not a gift! This is the new deal: You are going to lead the rest of the marsh-dwellers out of this city, or I am going to add you to the ruins below it!"

She struggled to hold on and I loosened my legs to let her know how serious I was.

"I _will_ lead the Baron to you if I see you in The City again!"

"Deal, manfool!" She agreed bitterly but I didn't care. I observed the sturdiness of the room close below us and swung my legs to release her onto a section of the floor that still hadn't collapsed. Galingale took one last look at me and I stared her down before she left through the doorway. If I ever saw another marsh-dweller in The City, it would be too soon.

We had no time to relax. Six rushed ahead because I was snatching vines and tying them together. We had to jump down the last few flights but we landed on a pile of dead bodies—the ghouls that followed us. Once we were clear of the collapse, we stopped to catch our breath and watch the fall. A lot of bodies were buried in the rocks as the rest of the building came down.

* * *

With the claw, it wasn't too difficult for me to climb back up to where our ropes ended. I attached the vines to Six's rope so he had more length to work with.

"So this is what your life's about, is it?" He handed over the Jacknall's Paw when he met me up the cliff. "Bit too much risk without reward, I think. Robbing humans is one thing but robbing taffers who can kill you with a touch? Got a family to think about. Mind, that don't mean you can't call on me for help again, just not as frequent or deadly."

"I'll keep that in mind." Now that I had satisfied his curiosity, I was confident that I wouldn't hear anything else from Six about the primal. That only left one other person whose interest was still a point of concern for me.

* * *

Like any dedicated leader, Baron Stonebridge kept late hours in his office. It was the only time he had to himself to process the day. I wagered he treasured the midnight silence as much as me and I almost hated to disturb his moment. But we had unfinished business and I couldn't rest until it was worked out. That meant he didn't get to, either.

He was surprised to see me come through the door but his brow quickly washed downward with relief. "I thought our business might be done, Master Thief."

"That depends." I stepped away from the door and ignored the available chair when he offered it. "What's your business with the primal?"

"It's not what you think." He looked like he didn't want to ask the next question. "There are reports coming in that the walking corpses are dropping where they stand. Did you end the curse?"

"What do you think?"

"And The Eye?"

I narrowed mine at him. If he wasn't going to answer my question then I was going to have to use my vision to look into him, and that would make me distrust him even more.

Stonebridge breathed a deep sigh as if his body had just been uncoupled from a ship's anchor. I knew how he felt but I didn't let it show on my face. He needed to answer my question or things were about to get complex.

"This City is a time bomb waiting to go off. It has been, since before the Metal Age. In His ancient and infinite wisdom, the Master Builder called me here to reset the clock on that bomb. You call it the primal—I call it a knife in the hands of a toddler. The knife itself cannot be destroyed, but it can be placed on a high enough shelf where that toddler can't reach it."

Now he was saying something of interest to me.

"You said that book you were looking for holds the key to shutting down the primal? If that is why you were after it, then we do have a common interest. If you would truly hear me out—if you would work with me to see this through—I believe we could resolve this situation to our mutual satisfaction."

After everything the Keepers and Pagans put me through, I was wary about helping another group that was obsessed with the primal. Then again, the Baron was the first with an agenda that matched my own. If he was truly interested in sealing the power away, then his resources would benefit me. I would only know more if I lent him my ear.

Stonebridge once again gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk. "Please. Spare more of your time and I will tell you everything, Master Thief."

I approached the chair and rested a hand on it. "Garrett... and I'm listening."

End


End file.
